Identifier: keytonorthameric02coue (find matches)
Title: Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899
Subjects: Birds -- North America Birds -- Collection and preservation
Publisher: Boston, D. Estes and Company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ort as in Clipselidcc AwA Tro- Fio. 378.-Whippoorwill, a aetirostral Caprimulgine. ,.,., rp ., -,, • , em (From Tenney, after Wilson.) chiluhe. lail variable in shape, or 10 rec-trices. Plumage aftershafted ; pulviplumes jirosent only in one genus (Xi/ctibius). Feetextremely small; tarsus usually short, and partly feathered; hind toe very short, commonlyelevated and turned sideways; front toes connected at base by movable webbing, and usu-ally showing abnormal ratio of phalanges, the 4th toe having but 4 joints (p. 133, fig. 41) ;middle toe lengthened beyond the sliort lateral ones, its claw usually pectinate (fig. iiSO).Tlie small oil-gland is nude, and ca-ca are present. The arrangement of the palatal bonesis not desmognathous; small basipterygoids are present; tlie jtalatines are cxpandetl later-ally; the vomer is truncate in front. The sternum is 2-notclied (4-notch<d only in Xifcti-bius). As thus defined (to the exdnsioii of Iodnrffiihr ami Stfalornithi<l(r, which used lu
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562 S YS TEMA TIC S YNOP SIS. — PICARIjE — CORA CLE. be forced into this family), the Caprimulgidce are a defiuitely-circutnseribed, easily-recog-nized group of about 20 genera and 100 species, of temperate and tropical parts of bothhemispheres. They are all more or less nocturnal, and have a certain resemblance to Owls.The flight is perfectly noiseless; the plumage is very soft and lax, as in Owls, and the colorsare blended in the most intricate pattern. In certain exotic genera, either the wing or taildevelops a pair of immensely lengthened feathers. Thus, in the African pennant-wingedCosmetornis vexillarius an inner primary of the ^ is prolonged into a slender streamer a footand a half long ; and in the related African standard-bearer, Macrodipteryx macrodipterus, thesame primary of the ^ is similarly elongated, with a bare shaft bearing a webbed spatula orracket at its end. The African Scotornis climacurus has greatly produced central tail-feathers ;but the peculiar developmen

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