Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1875 — Habits of Goatsuckers. [ARTICLE]

Habits of Goatsuckers.

A distinguishing feature of the Caprimulgince, or goatsuckers, is the comb-like-appendage to the middle claw. The feet of these birds are so short as to forbid perching in the usual way—that is, with the toes clasping the branch and the body sitting above it crosswise. The ■whippoorwill, nighthawk and other goatsuckers will always be seen sitting lengthwise on a bough or crouched on the ground. But the middle toe of their feet is finely divided on the inner side, after the manner of a comb, and what purpose this unique attachment was meant to serve it has always puzzled the ornithologists to decide. Wilson, one of the earliest observers of this family of birds, gravely suggests that it is probably put to the uses of a fine-tooth comb, viz.: to rid the head of vermin! Knots of down are often found adhering to the pectinated claw, and what more natural supposition than that the bird pulled them out of its tangled poll as little boys and girls tear the snarls out of their disheveled heads. But the goatsuckers have never been caught in the act of dressing their locks in the style peculiar to civilized man, and therefore we may infer that their combs are devoted to some other object. Certain naturalists, contend that the appendage is used to clean the bristles at the base of the bill from the fragments of wings of insects that may adhere to them. Yet the bristles are coarse and some distance apart, whereas the teeth of the claw are fine and very close. Others think the claw may be pectinated in order to assist the bird in holding on to its perch. Others, again, suggest that it is used to grasp large insects with a safer clutch, but the birds almost invariably catch their prey with the mouth and thus this supposition falls to the ground. One writer advances the idea that the claw may be used for disengaging the hooked feet of beetles from the bill. This view of the service of the comb-like claw is favored by Gilbert White, who states in his Natural History of Selborne that he has distinctly seen the whippoorwill raise its foot to the mouth while hawking for insects on the wing. The goatsuckers {ged upon moths, beetles and other nocturnal insects, which they capture while flying, the capacious mouth widely distended proving an excellent insect trap. The name goatsucker was given to the birds from the popular tradition that they suck the milk of goats, suspending themselves from the udder. The superstition took its rise from the habit of tne birds to haunt pastures and the places,, where cattle are„.kept and insects are to be met with in abundance. "I