By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



221 



long ; the base of the bill fringed with large bristles, which they 

 can move at pleasure and are of great assistance in securing their 

 prey ; their feet are very small and weak, and as they are not 

 formed for grasping, when these birds rest on a branch, they 

 seldom perch transversely but lengthwise : but their most remark- 

 able peculiarity is the serrated or pectinated claw of the middle 

 toe, the comb consisting of about seven or eight teeth, supposed to 

 be useful in removing the legs of beetles and moths from the 

 bristles which surround the beak, as I have more fully detailed in 

 my paper on the feet of birds : 1 the hind toe is reversible, and can 

 be brought round to the front, so as to make all four toes turn the 

 same way. The food of the Caprimulgidge consists entirely of 

 insects, chiefly those which fly by night, and which they then 

 seize in their capacious mouth as they hurry along ; indeed as this 

 family has the closest affinity with the Hirundinidse, they may well 

 be termed " Night Swallows," for like them they visit us period- 

 ically from Africa in the summer, are insect eaters, have great 

 powers of flight, feed on the wing, and resemble them in many 

 particulars of their formation and habits. It is to this family that 

 the American " Whip-poor- Will " so dreaded by the superstitious 

 Indians, as the ghost of one of their ancestors, belongs. 



"Nightjar" (Cctprimulgus Europceus). This is by far the most 

 appropriate of the many names which this much belied bird has yet 

 received, and it expresses one of its most remarkable habits, for 

 When perched on a tree with its face towards the trunk, and its tail 

 towards the outer branches, and closely concealed by the thick foliage, 

 which is the position it most loves by day, or else squatted on the 

 ground amid the tall fern and heather, it will utter a most singular 

 jarring or whirring noise, somewhat resembling the hum of a 

 spinning wheel, while its head is bent down lower than the tail, and 

 every feather quivers as it utters its purring note. It is also known 

 as the " Fern-owl," a most incorrect term and one likely to mis- 

 lead, for beyond the fact that it is crepuscular, and therefore has 

 soft downy plumage, and is seldom seen abroad before" the witching 

 hour of twilight," it has no more affinity with the owl family than 

 1 Magazine, vol. ii., p. 298. 



