334 GOATSUCKER. 



their tiuie of coming into England, but none remain there through 

 the summer ; yet are in plenty about San Roeque, and the shrubby 

 tracts of the Isthmus, especially the hollow dry channels, that are 

 worn by winter torrents from the hills. In the beginning of October 

 they again assemble in that neighbourhood, preparatory to their 

 departure, and then perfectly swarm in the hedge rows, and dry 

 channels, for a short time, and disappear of a sudden ; as they catch 

 their food by night, and sleep in the day, perhaps their emigration 

 may take place in the night, for in the day they are always drowsy. 

 If disturbed, they take but very short flights; and when they alight 

 on the ground, lie flat on their belly, like the Swift, with their chins 

 grovelling in the dust, and their eyes shut, endeavouring to hide 

 themselves under banks and stones, so as to screen them from the 

 glare of day. In this manner, it may be conceived, they often creep 

 under the sides of cows or goats, which lie on the ground, and being- 

 there found, the herdsmen, who are astonished at their enormously 

 wide mouths, are easily led to suppose them capable of sucking the 

 teats of cattle, and from this they have gained the name of Goat- 

 sucker. They are also known in England by several others — as Night 

 Hawk, Night Crow, Dorr Hawk, Churn and Fern Owl, Night Jar, 

 Eve Jar, Night Raven, and Wheel Bird.* In Hampshire, called 

 also the Puckeridge, as being thought to occasion the distemper, 

 called by that name, among young calves; but this complaint is owing 

 to a far different cause.f It is not to be wondered that the French 

 call this, among other names, Craupaud volant (Flying Toad), since 

 the note is sometimes so exactly like the grating noise of that reptile, 

 as hardly to be distinguished from it. The Nightingale has also, at 

 the end of its stay with us, a sort of note, which does not ill resemble 

 it. This Species is found on the Continent as far north as Sondmor, 



* The Welsh call it by the same— Aderyn y Droell, meaning Wheel Bird. 



f The Puckeridge is a disease of the back, occasioned by the larva of the Oestrus Bovis, 

 which, as it increases in size, forms a large, inflammatory, and painful swelling; and when 

 several are in the same subject, will frequently cause the death of the younger animal; and 

 sometimes prove very afflicting, if not fatal, even to the full grown and adult one. 



