670 THE NORTH AMERICAN GOATSUCKERS. 
ages back. Their very name implies this. The appellation 
« goatsuckers,” which has now extended to the whole family, was, 
without doubt, suggested by their very wide gape. This led to 
the idea entertained by the ancients that they sucked goats. 
In the west these birds have been accused of the crime of 
sucking milk from cows—about as probable as‘snakes being guilty 
of the same offence; yet there are hundreds who believe in such 
impossibilities: and to this belief may be attributed the cause of 
their being birds of evil omen in the estimation of our rural popu- 
lation. These mistaken notions have been current since the days 
of Aristotle, if not still further back. Absurd as they may appear 
to an enlightened and reflecting person, they are, nevertheless, 
firmly believed by many, which may to a certain extent account 
for the universal ignorance of the birds as well as of their 
habits. 
The main reason, however, that these birds are confounded is 
in reality due to the great dissimilarity in their habits; for the 
nighthawks are often seen, and only occasionally heard, while the 
whippoorwills are frequently heard and seldom seen: and their 
very similar appearance when asleep or resting for the day (the 
whippoorwills being seldom observed at any other time) tends 
also to confirm the opinion that they are the same species. 
The family Caprimulgide, to which these birds belong, is divi- 
ded into three sub-families, Steatornithinæ, Podargine and Capri- 
mulgine. The latter only is represented in North America, and 
by two genera, Antrostomus Gould, the whippoorwills, and Chor- 
deiles Swains., the nighthawks ; the former of which contains three 
species, the latter two. 
The common whippoorwill (A. vociferus Bon.) is an inhabitant 
of eastern North America from Canada to Florida, where it 1s 
replaced by the chuck-will’s-widow (A. Carolinensis Gould). Its 
range to the westward appears to be restricted to Leavenworth, 
Kansas,* where it is again represented by a still smaller species, 
the A. Nuttalli Cass., or “‘poor-will.” i 
It is a summer sojourner in the District of Columbia, where it 
usually arrives from the south the last of April or the first of May. 
Although I have observed it as early as the thirteenth of April 
its arrival at that early period is of rare occurrence. The males 
generally precede the females a few days, and soon after the latter 
€ * Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl. July, 1872, 
