Sentence examples for goatsucker from inspiring English sources

The name of the type genus Caprimulgus, goatsucker, derives from an ancient belief that the birds seen flitting about the goats at dusk were taking milk from the goats' udders, a misconception no doubt fortified by the birds' uncommonly large mouths.

There is now a tendency to replace the name goatsucker with the more appropriate term nightjar, derived from the birds' voices.

It is also known as nighthawk, whip-poor-will, or goatsucker.

In Plath's "Goatsucker," she writes of the vulgar notion that the bird sucked milk from goats at night: Old goatherds swear how all night long they hear The warning whirr and burring of the bird Who wakes with darkness and till dawn works hard Vampiring dry of milk each great goat udder.

Moon full, moon dark, the chary dairy farmer Dreams that his fattest cattle dwindle, fevered By claw-cuts of the Goatsucker, alias Devil-bird, Its eye, flashlit, a chip of ruby fire.

In her diary, Plath writes, "Spent a really pleasant afternoon, rainy, in the library looking up Goatsuckers….