GOATSUCKERS 227 



buff, or gray, profusely blotched or speckled with blackish, brownish gray, 

 and lavender. 



Food. Insects, such as flies, ants, mosquitoes, small beetles, grasshop- 

 pers, crickets, and moths. 



The three forms of nryiniinnis resemble each other so closely in 

 habit and appearance that they are difficult to distinguish except in 

 the hand. Their distribution is little help in determining them except 

 during the breeding season when sennetti retires to the Dakotas ; for 

 at other times henry i and wiuntti range together from Dakota to 

 Texas ; and even in the breeding season the eastern form makes irreg- 

 ular irruptions into the range of the western. 



The nighthawks, while wholly absorbed in their own aerial pur- 

 suits, nevertheless beguile many an hour for the weary wayfarer in 

 the west. As the ambulance-like 'hack' or prairie schooner makes 

 its slow way over the hot bare plains, the traveler hails with delight 

 the sight of the little black stick lying on the ground in the midst 

 of the glaring flatness. The bird's eyes are shut and his long wings 

 folded close to his sides, but at the sound of horses' hoofs he is up in 

 the sky, sailing this way and that, a bit of active life in the lifeless 

 plain. 



Then when nightfall approaches and camp is pitched by a water- 

 hole in the rocks, in the midst of the desolate expanse the traveler 

 feels a thrill of homelike companionship as the 'peent' of a night- 

 hawk makes him glance up and he finds a score of the old familiar 

 forms zigzagging about showing their white wing crescents at the 

 turns of their flight, 



How wonderfully at home they seem in the sky ! Now they soar 

 with wings set at an angle, then flap along in a straight line, to dive 

 suddenly straight down almost into camp with a loud, whizzing 

 boom. 



In the nesting season as the hunter crosses a bare space among 

 the rocks on the mountains, sometimes a nighthawk will start from 

 under his very feet and with wings outspread and tail hanging 

 trail lamely off till satisfied with her ruse, when with swift strong 

 flight she makes a wide circle and returns either to trail once more 

 before him or to settle down on a rock where she can watch to see 

 if he has discovered her almost invisible young. 



420a. C. V. henryi (Cass.). WESTERN NIGHTHAWK. 



Similar to virginianus, but paler; upper parts mainly light grayish 

 buffy or ochraceous ,- dark bars on under parts spaced with tawny white. 



Remarks. - - Though lighter than virginianus, henryi is much darker 

 than sennetti, which is light brown, buffy, and on wing coverts mainly 

 whitish. 



Distribution. Breeds in Transition and Canadian zones of the western 



