The Collaborative International Dictionary
Caprimulgidae \Caprimulgidae\ n. [L. capris goat + mulgere to milk.] a widely distributed natural family of nocturnally active birds including the whip-poor-will ( Caprimulgus vociferus), the chuck-will's-widow ( Caprimulgus carolinensis), and the common nighthawk ( Chordeiles minor); -- called popularly the goatsuckers or nightjars. The nighthawks are sometimes active during the day.
Syn: goatsuckers, nightjars, family Caprimulgidae.
The family . . . is alternately known as the
nightjars (derived from the "churring" sounds of
several species -- "jarring" the night air), or
goatsuckers, a nonsense name that should be
discontinued as it has its origin in the
preposterous myth that the birds sucked the milk
of nanny goats until they were dry.
--Terence
Michael Short
(Wild Birds of
the Americas)
Wiktionary
n. (plural of nightjar English)
Usage examples of "nightjars".
We are rich in nightjars, as you know - do you hear the one over to the east?
After a while, during which at least three separate nightjars churred and one owl called, she said, 'Stephen, you do me infinite honour, and it grieves me more than I can say to desire you to dismiss the subject from your mind.
There were few birds he preferred to nightjars, but it was not that they had brought him out of bed: he stood leaning on the balcony rail and presently Jack Aubrey, in a summer-house by the bowling-green, began again, playing very gently in the darkness, improvising wholly for himself, dreaming away on his violin with a mastery that Stephen had never heard equalled, though they had played together for years and years.
Every so often, their glow would briefly light up other, larger shapes: bats and nightjars swooping down to take advantage of the feast set out before them.