NIGHTJAR. 
337 
lina Nightjar ; Their mouths,’ says Wilson, ‘ are capable of pro- 
digious expansion, to seize their prey with more certainty, and fur* 
nished with long hairs or bristles, serving as palisades to secure what 
comes between them. Reposing much during the heat of the day, 
they are much infested with vermin, (^Nirmi? Ornithomyice?^ particu- 
larly about the head, and are provided with a comb on the inner edge 
of the middle claw, with which they are often employed in ridding 
themselves of these pests, at least when in a state of captivity.’^ This 
appears to settle the question.”^ But again,” says Mr. Swainson, 
“ to suppose that nature has given to one or two families of birds the 
exclusive power of freeing themselves from an enemy, which in like 
manner infests all birds, is preposterous.” Yet, though he smiles at my 
“ simplicity,” and alleges that I am “ sometimes very unfortunate” 
in my “ speculations,”^ the simplicity must, in the present case, rest 
with himself ; for if the pectinated claws are bestowed on the Nightjars 
and the herons to secure their prey, he ought, by his own argument, 
to be able to show that all birds which feed on similar prey, such as the 
swifts, have pectinated claws. 
The Nightjar, it would appear, is the butt of innumerable mistakes; 
for though it feeds, like the bat, upon nocturnal moths and other night- 
flying insects, the small birds shew, by the attacks they make upon it, 
that they believe it to prey upon them, in the same way as they mis- 
take the cuckoo for a hawk. The name also which it has received in 
all languages, of Goat Sucker, (most absurdly continued by systematic 
naturalists in the term Caprimulgus^ shews the opinion of it entertained 
by the vulgar. It is, however, as impossible for the Nightjar to suck 
the teats of cattle, (though most birds are fond of milk,) as it is for 
cats to suck the breath from sleeping infants, of which they are popu- 
larly accused ; inasmuch, as the structure of their organs would baffle 
any such attempt. In another page we have shewn in what manner 
the bird has been mistaken for a cuckoo.* 
The male makes a very singular noise during the period of cubation, 
not unlike the sound of a large spinning wheel, and which it is observed 
to utter perched, with the head downwards ; besides which it emits a 
sharp squeak, repeated as it flies. 
The Nightjar is most plentiful in the wild tracts of uncultivated 
‘ Araer. Orn. vi. 97. ^ J. Rennie in Mag. Nat, Hist. 296. 
^ Alag. of Nat. Hist. iv. 276. 
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