. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. THE GOATSUCKERS. 369 Batrachostomus* popularly known as " Frog-mouths ; " tlieir place is taken in Australia and New Guinea by tlie giantsof the family—the /^or/'ov/j, examples of which are generally to be seen in the London Zoological Gardens. Of the Tawny-shouldered Podargus {P. strii/oidesf) Mr. Gould gives the following account:—" Like the rest of this genus, this species is strictly nocturnal, sleeping throughout the day on tlie dead branch of a tiee, in an upright |) across, and never parallel to, tlie branch w
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. THE GOATSUCKERS. 369 Batrachostomus* popularly known as " Frog-mouths ; " tlieir place is taken in Australia and New Guinea by tlie giantsof the family—the /^or/'ov/j, examples of which are generally to be seen in the London Zoological Gardens. Of the Tawny-shouldered Podargus {P. strii/oidesf) Mr. Gould gives the following account:—" Like the rest of this genus, this species is strictly nocturnal, sleeping throughout the day on tlie dead branch of a tiee, in an upright |) across, and never parallel to, tlie branch which it so nearly resembles as scarcely to be distinguished from it. I have occasionally seen it benath the thick foliage of the Caswvrhua, and I liave been informed that it sometimes shelters itself in the hollow trunks of the Eucalypti, but I could never detect one in such a situation ; I mostly found them in , perched near each other on the branches of the gums, in situations not at all sheltered from the beams of the midday sun. So lethargic are its slumbers, that it is almost impossible to arouse it, and I have frequently shot one without its mate, sitting close by ; it may also be knocked ofl' with sticks or stones, and .sometimes it is even taken with the hand. Wlien aroused, it flies lazily. GOATSUC off, with heavy flapping wings, to a neighbouring tree, and again resumes its slumbers until the approach of evening, when it becomes as animated and active as it had been previously dull and stupid. The stomach of one I dissected induced me to believe that it does not usually capture its prey while on the wing, or subsist on nocturnal insects alone, but that it is in the habit of creeping among the branches in search of such as are in a state of repose. The power it possesses of shifting the position of the outer toe backwards, as circumstances may require, is a very singular feature, and may also tend to assist them in their progi-ess among th
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