II. GENUS CHORDEILES. Swainson, Fauna Boreali Americana, Birds, p. 496. (1831.)
Bill small and weak; gape very wide, without bristles; wing long, pointed, with the first and second quills longest; tail moderate or rather long, usually emarginate; legs short, weak; tarsus usually partly covered with short feathers; toes rather long, slender; claw of the middle toe pectinated. General form stout and heavy, broad. A genus containing about six species, inhabiting North and South America, the North American species of which are less nocturnal in their habits than those of the preceding genus.
1. Chordeiles virginianus. (Brisson.) The Night Hawk. Caprimulgus virginianus. Briss., Orn., II. p. 477. (1760.) Caprimulgus popetue. Vieill., Ois. d’Am., Sept. 1, p. 56. (1807.) Caprimulgus americanus. Wilson, Am. Orn., V. p. 65. (1812.)
Edwards, Birds, II. pl. 63.; Catesby, Carolina, II. Appendix, pl. 16; Vieill., Ois. d’Am., Sept. 1, pl. 24; Wilson, Am. Orn., V. pl. 40; Aud., B. of Am., pl. 147; Oct. ed., I. pl. 43; Nat. Hist. N. Y. Birds, pl. 27, fig. 60.
Bill short, weak; gape very wide; wing long, pointed; first and second quills longest, and nearly equal; tail emarginate; legs short; tarsus feathered below the joint, with the tibia; bare part covered with scales; middle toe long, partially united to the outer toe by a web, and with its claw distinctly pectinated. Male.—Throat white; entire upper parts brownish black, every feather more or less mottled and spotted with ashy white and reddish fulvous, the former most conspicuous on the secondaries and wing-coverts, and the latter on the back; neck behind with an irregular collar of reddish; quills brownish-black, with a wide bar of white about their middle, forming a conspicuous transverse bar on the wing; tail feathers brownish-black, all, excepting the two central, with a wide subterminal transverse band of white, and with other irregular transverse narrow bands of ashy white; breast brownish-black, with rounded and irregular spots of ashy white and reddish fulvous; abdomen with transverse bars of ashy white and dark brown; under tail-coverts white. Female with the white stripe on the wing much narrower, and in some specimens confined to the inner-webs; white of the throat less pure, and tinged with reddish-yellow; general plumage paler, and more tinged with ashy and reddish fulvous.
Dimensions. Total length, 9 to 9½ inches; wing, 7½; tail, 4½ inches.
Hab. All of temperate North America, New Mexico (McCall); Oregon (Townsend); California (Heermann); Canada (Hall); Mexico (Rivoli collection); Nicaragua (Barruel); Cuba (Lembeye); Jamaica (Gosse). Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada.
Obs. An abundant species everywhere in the United States.
2. Chordeiles sapiti. Bonaparte, Cons. Av., p. 63. (1849.)
Not figured.
Very similar in form and general appearance to the preceding, but smaller, and with all the colors paler; bill very short and weak; gape large; wing long; first quill slightly longest; tail moderate, emarginate; tarsus feathered in front somewhat below the point with the tibia; throat white; entire upper plumage brownish-black, mottled, and variegated, with very pale cinereous, which predominates on the back, rump, and coverts of the wings; under-parts with transverse narrow bands of dark brown and yellowish-white; quills brownish-black, with a wide transverse band of white at the distance from their end of about one-third their length, and also with some irregular spots and pairs of spots of rufous in their basal halves. Female paler, and with the white of the throat tinged with pale reddish fulvous.
Dimensions. Total length, about 8½ inches; wing, 7¼; tail, 4½ inches.
Hab. Texas (Mr. Clark, Capt. McCown); New Mexico, Central America. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington.
Obs. This species is nearly allied to the preceding, and also to Chordeiles brasilianus, from both of which it differs in some particulars of form, and also in having its colors much paler. In the latter character it somewhat resembles the C. acutipennis of South America. We regard this bird provisionally under the name above given, but the description as cited is too brief to be satisfactory. It is, however, the only species known to us that can be referred to it.
This bird is abundant in Texas during the summer.
3. Chordeiles Henryi. nobis (new species, January, 1855).
Not figured.
Larger than either of the two preceding species; wing long; second quill longest; tail rather long; emarginate; legs and feet short; tarsus feathered in front slightly below the joint with the tibia; bare part of the tarsus and the toes with very distinct scales; entire upper parts variegated with dark brown and pale reddish fulvous, every feather being tipped and spotted with the latter, which predominates on the back, rump, wing-coverts, and tertiaries; some spots on the tertiaries rufous; breast dark brown, every feather tipped with dull reddish fulvous; abdomen white, tinged with pale reddish-yellow, every feather with transverse stripes of brownish-black; under-coverts dull reddish white, with transverse lines of brownish-black; neck with a large band of white in front; quills brownish-black, tipped with dull reddish-white; primaries with a wide transverse band of white at about half their length; tail with alternate irregular stripes of brownish-black and pale reddish fulvous, the latter mottled with black; under wing-coverts pale reddish-white, with bands and spots of brownish-black. Female. Colors paler, and white of the neck obscure.
Dimensions. Total length of skin, about 10 inches; wing, 8; tail, 4½ inches.
Hab. New Mexico (Dr. Henry, Lieut. Gunnison). Spec. in Nat. Mus., Washington, and Mus. Acad., Philada.
Obs. This bird may be distinguished from other American species by its color, which is lighter and of a different style of variegation, the prevailing tone being a dull, pale reddish and yellowish, somewhat approaching what is called buff or drab color. It is larger than Chordeiles virginianus.
Specimens of this interesting species have been procured at Fort Webster, New Mexico, by Dr. Henry, and by the unfortunate party under command of the late Lieut. Gunnison.
As a token of respect for T. Charlton Henry, M. D., of the United States Army, whose exertions in the investigation of the natural productions of New Mexico, now continued for several years, and the formation of large collections in various departments, which attest his zeal and attachment to zoological science, we propose the specific name above given.
B.
OBSCURE OR LITTLE KNOWN SPECIES OF THIS FAMILY.
1. Caprimulgus macromystax. Wagler, Isis, XXIV. p. 533. (1831.)
This species is noticed by Wagler, as above, from a Mexican specimen, and his description is essentially a comparison with the Caprimulgus europæus. It is stated that the bristles at the base of the bill are very long, or “nearly as long as the head without the bill,” and the plumage generally bearing a resemblance to the European species mentioned.
There is in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, a specimen from Mexico, and another from California, differing in shade of color only from the Antrostomus vociferus, and from which the distinctive characters are too slight to establish a separate species. We regard these specimens as C. macromystax. The length of the bristles in Wagler’s description applies as well to A. vociferus, and we think it probable that his name is a synonyme.
The following is a translation of Wagler’s description or notice as above cited, and is at the end of an elaborate and valuable paper, in which he describes several new American species of birds:—
“At the conclusion of these descriptions of birds, I will yet remark that we have received from Mexico, also, a Caprimulgus (which specimen unfortunately is without the tail), that nearly resembles ours in size and color, but which nevertheless may be distinguished at a glance; the tarsi on their upper sides are hardly feathered to the middle, and the bristles on both sides of the upper mandible are uncommonly stiff, and longer than in any other American Night Swallow, nearly as long as the head without the bill, and are turned rake-like obliquely downwards. I have named it, therefore, Caprimulgus macromystax. The feet are short, as in ours; also as in ours, the claw of the middle toe on its inner border is pectinated, the primaries are small, the second, third, and fourth, externally from their middles to their ends, are strongly sinuated; they are brown-black, without white spots, but have internally and externally rust-red angular dots.”
2. Caprimulgus minor. Forster. Catalogue of the Animals of North America, p. 13. London, 1771.
A name given without being accompanied by a description, though probably applicable to Antrostomus vociferus, which was known to some of the older naturalists, and, previous to the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, was called minor, in distinction from the Caprimulgus europæus.
The catalogue by Forster above referred to is a pamphlet, and is, so far as We know, the first attempt at an enumeration of the species of all classes of animals inhabiting North America. There is also a catalogue of the Plants of North America by the same author.
3. Antrostomus californianus. Bonaparte, Cons. Av. p. 61. (1849.)
The description by the Prince of Canino, as above, is as follows:—
“(Confer Capr. nuttalli, Aud. Am. Orn., 2d edit., t. 495,) ex California, Vix Turdi magnitudine. Mas. Griseus, nucha fulvescenti, abdomine cervino, nigro undulato; gula macula utrinque alba nigro terminata: remigibus fuscis, macula mediana alba, rectricibus lateralibus nigricantibus, extima late ad apicem candida.”
The characters here given differ so essentially from those of any other species of Antrostomus, that we much suspect that the bird alluded to neither belongs to this genus, nor is an American species.
4. Caprimulgus europæus. Linn.
This name occurs in several of the older authors on American Natural History, which is to be attributed to the fact that the Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) was regarded by Linnæus as a variety only of the European Goatsucker. President Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, p. 117 (London edition, 1787), gives both of the then known North American birds of this group as two varieties only of the European bird. Professor Barton, in Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, p. 14, under the head of Caprimulgus europæus, says: “This, or a variety of it, is certainly a native of Pennsylvania. So that now all the fifteen species of this genus (mentioned by Gmelin) are known to be natives of America.” Both of these distinguished and venerated fathers of American zoological science adopted the opinion of Linnæus, and the name of the European bird is given also on the same authority by some others of the earlier American writers.
The European Goatsucker has never been observed on the continent of America.
Professor Barton’s observation above quoted is singularly suggestive. Linnæus, at the date of his last edition of the Systema Naturæ, knew two species only of the genus Caprimulgus. Gmelin, in the edition of the same work, edited by him, and published in 1788, extended the list to fifteen species, and was, when Professor Barton wrote, in 1799, recent and high authority. So greatly has the knowledge of species of birds been extended, that at this time (1855) there are at least ninety known birds of the family Caprimulgidæ, all of which would have been regarded by Linnæus and Gmelin as belonging to the genus Caprimulgus. There are seventy-four species of this family in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy. Though, as Professor Barton observes, all of those known to Gmelin (except Caprimulgus europæus), are American, others are now ascertained to inhabit all the temperate and tropical regions of both of the great divisions of the globe, and the whole of Australia.
Of this family of birds, the only species that have been ascertained or supposed by naturalists to inhabit that part of North America within our limits, are given in the preceding pages. The group is, however, represented in South America not only by other species of the genera above given, but by various other genera and species, amongst which are some curious and interesting forms. The genus Steatornis, containing a single species, first brought to notice by the celebrated Humboldt (Steatornis caripensis, Humboldt), is remarkable for its near approach to the Owls, and would, to a casual observer, scarcely be regarded as belonging to any other than that family. The genus Nyctibius, which is also South American, contains some species as large as the Crow of the United States, and which are amongst the largest birds of this group. Another genus, Hydropsalis, or the Scissors-tailed Goatsuckers, as they are termed by Azara (an enthusiastic and accurate Spanish writer on South American Natural History), are remarkable for having tails of singular forms, and of great length in some species. Hydropsalis torquatus has the two outermost feathers of its tail long, and the two middle feathers also long, leaving the intermediate comparatively short. Hydropsalis lyra, Bonaparte, has the outermost feathers of the tail very long, and curved inwards at their ends. Two species, first described by us, Hydropsalis limbatus and segmentatus (in Proc. Acad., Philadelphia), have that appendage several times the length of their bodies.
About thirty-five species of Caprimulgidæ inhabit South and Central America and Mexico. The largest birds of this group are natives of Australia.
We are inclined to the opinion that this family (and the Swallows also) properly belong to the circle of rapacious birds in which they have been arranged by Prof. Reichenbach, in Avium Systema Naturale (Dresden and Leipsic, 1850).[4]