Class II. NOCTURNAL GOAT-SUCKER. 567 



It is also a bird of passage ; agrees in food with 

 this genus, and in the manner of taking it : dif- 

 fers in the time of preying, flying only by night, 

 so with some justice may be called a nocturnal 

 swalloxv. It feeds on moths, gnats, dorrs or 

 chaffers ; from which Charlton calls it a Dorr- 

 hawk, its food being entirely that species of 

 beetle during the month of July, the period of 

 that insect's* flight in this country. 



This bird makes but a short stay with us : 

 appears the latter end of May ; and disappears 

 in the northern parts of our island the latter end 

 of August, | but in the southern stays above a 

 month later. It inhabits all parts of Great 

 Britain, from Cornwall to the county of Ross. 

 Mr. Scopoli seems to credit the report of their 

 sucking the teats of goats, an error delivered 

 down from the days of Aristotle. 



Its notes are most singular : the loudest so 

 much resembles that of a large spinning wheel, 

 that the Welsh call this bird aderyn y droell, or 

 the wheel bird. It begins its song most punc- 

 tually on the close of day, sitting usually on a 

 bare bough with the head lower than the tail, as 

 expressed in the upper figure in the plate ; the 

 lower jaw quivering with the efforts. The noise 

 js so very violent, as to give a sensible vibration 



* Scaralceus Melolontha. 



t It quits Italy about the same period. 



