A compendium of the Ornithology of Great Britain

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1820 Excerpt: ...intermixture of black, brown, rust colour, and white, beneath it is reddish, with brown bands. The male has an oval white spot on the inner web of the first three quill feathers, and at the tip of the two outer tail feathers. The goat sucker is a migratory and solitary bird, appearing with us about the middle of May, and retiring in September or October. It makes no nest, but lays two oval whitish eggs, marbled with light brown on the bare ground amongst heath or fern. It frequents woods, and feeds in the evening on beetles. It chatters by night, with a singular noise. " We have witnessed the singular manner in which this bird takes its prey, consisting of moths and beetles, which it pursues with great agility on the wing, occasionally throwing itself backwards, and thrusting out its foot, with which it seizes and conveys them to its mouth with great deliberation: probably its serrated claws may assist this operation." W. ORDER IV. COLUMBM. Base of the bill covered with a soft tumid membrane, the tip arcuated. Stomach muscular, or furnished with a gizzard. GENUS XXXI, COLUMBA. Bill weak, straight, slender, a little bent at the apex; nostrils oblong, half covered by a soft tumid membrane; tongue entire; legs short. Dr. Fordyce has proved by experiments, that all birds, especially during the time of laying, require a certain quantity of calcareous matter for the perfect formation of their egg-shells. In opposition to this opinion, however, Dr. Paris, in the 10th vol. of Lin. Trans, says, " That a deficiency of calcareous matter in the system is the cause of the absence of the shell, no one will deny; but that it depends on some internal state, and not on the privation of lime, may be shewn by the following circumstance. A hen, which I kept for ...