258 TlMEHRI. 
fixed in many of these forms, and their proper preserva- 
tion requires considerable care. Along many of the 
sheltered creeks and streams and in the forest generally, 
these birds abound. They feed chiefly on insefts. 
Of the wide-spread family of the goatsuckers or u who- 
are-you" birds (Caprimulgidx) ) specimens are shewn, next 
to the trogons. In these birds, the bills are very thin and 
weak ; the gape is extremely wide and is bristled at the 
base ; the plumage is of a variegated brown, rich, soft and 
glossy, and abundant, the body of the bird being quite 
small in comparison with its feathered condition ; three 
toes are dire6led forwards, slightly joined by membrane 
to each other, and one toe is dire6ted backwards. The 
birds delight in the evening light, and their flight is rapid 
and silent. Their food consists of insefts which they easily 
catch in their capacious mouths. By ignorant people, 
these birds, like the owls which they somewhat resemble, 
are looked upon as birds of evil omen. The name goat- 
sucker arose in error, from the supposition that the birds, 
which frequent the haunts of animals for the inse6l-pests 
about them, were in reality helping themselves to the 
milk of the animals. Their cry is of a very plaintive 
kind, and strongly calls to mind the sad notes of the 
human voice. 
Of the very large order of the Passeres or perchingbirds, 
many families are represented. The distribution of the 
groups of this order presents some very striking features ; 
thus while the Old World families of the thrushes, the 
wrens, the swallows, the finches and the crows, are fairly 
well represented in tropical America, the Old World families 
of the warblers, the creepers, the shrikes, the flycatchers, 
the starlings, and the larks, are scarcely or not at all repre- 
