The RESPLENDENT GOATSUCKER (_Caprimulgus eximius_) is a most beautiful
bird, inhabiting Northern Africa, remarkable for the brilliancy of its
plumage, which is almost entirely of a bright golden hue, marked upon
the head, breast, and back with oval _spots_, and upon the wings and
tail with _streaks_ of a somewhat deeper shade; the throat, vent, a spot
upon the pinions, and the tips of the exterior tail-feathers are white.
Rüppell, who first discovered these birds in Bahiuda, tells us that they
frequent vast steppes, and that their gay plumage blends most deceptively
with the yellow stubble and light sand which abounds in their favourite
haunts. We ourselves have often met with them in Cordofania.
[Illustration: THE EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER (_Caprimulgus Europæus_).]
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The BRISTLED NIGHT JARS (_Antrostomus_), indigenous to America, are
recognisable by their long, flat beak, which is hooked at its tip, by
their prominent tube-like nostrils, and the ten stiff strong bristles,
of about an inch in length, that grow at the base of the upper mandible,
and can be lowered or raised at pleasure. The second or third quill
exceeds the rest in length; the tail is long, but comparatively narrow,
more rounded at its tip, and the plumage is also thicker, and composed of
smaller feathers than that of such of their congeners as we have already
alluded to.