FACTS AND FABLES OF THE GOATSUCKER. 211 
bracken, heather, and furze bushes of our commons, or seek 
the shelter of some thick tree, where, sitting motionless, and 
parallel with the branch, tlieir dull colour renders them almost 
invisible. As soon as evening approaches, and the dusk begins 
to gather, the goatsuckers issue forth, and uttering their curious 
vibrating cry, dart backwards and forwards, falling and rising 
in the air, in search of moths and other nocturnal insects. The 
mouth, which is most unusually large, is kept wide open while 
the bird is hunting, acting like an animated butterfly net, and 
sweeping up all that it comes in contact with, added to which 
the inside of the beak secretes a sticky fluid which, with the 
stiff bristles surrounding it, tend to make escape from this 
formidable trap a matter of some difficulty ; and to further aid 
the bird in retaining its prey, it has in addition to the above- 
mentioned another peculiarity, namely, that the middle toe is 
finished off with a saw-like claw, a very efficient help when 
holding on to a captured victim. There is a goatsucker which 
abounds in the Maremme of Patria which is most remarkable, 
having “ the exact representation of a white moth depicted 
on each side of the expanded tail of the bird ; so that when 
flying about in the night the moths, which constitute its 
principal food, seeing the moths upon the tail, come fluttering 
round their devourer instead of avoiding him.”* Owing to its 
popularity it has acquired many names, most of which refer to 
the cry, the commonest being puckridge, wheelbird, goatsucker, 
night-jar, night-churn, churn-owl, fern-owl, eve-jar, and spinnie. 
These birds make no nest, but deposit their two long mottled 
eggs in a hollow in the ground, the parents being said to feign 
injury and inability of flight in order to decoy away enemies, or 
even to move the eggs to a place of greater safety should danger 
threaten them. In Hampshire these eggs are about the only 
kind left unmolested by village boys, who say they should never 
be blown, or even touched, as they are very poisonous — an evil 
attribute supposed to be also shared by the birds themselves, 
who are said to fly at the eyes of any one disturbing their young, 
and to certainly poison the offender should they succeed in 
drawing blood. Also, say the same rustics, puckridges fly 
round and round in the air trying to hit passers-by on the 
head with their wings, and that should they so manage to^ 
touch a child or young person, he or she will never grow again ; 
if instead ’tis a calf they come in contact with, the animal will 
surely die. One old man near the village of Haslemere was 
heard to say last summer that to his thinkin’ “ t’ puckridge is 
a sort o’ hawk ’at maakes a cry most like door-latch rattlin’ up 
an’ down, an’ when it flies from tree to tree in a hevenin’, an*^ 
makes a great noise, folks do say as how ’tis a sign of hot, fine 
weather — but,” added the old fellow in conclusion, “he be a hill- 
meanin’ bod, he be that ! ” 
Memoirs of Life and Adventures of Col. Maeeroni, p. 469. 
