114 INSESSORES. 



cends, then instantly it will glide obliquely downward 

 with astonishing rapidity, until within a few feet of 

 the ground, when, with the quickness of thought, it 

 expands its wings and tail to the utmost, thus check- 

 ing its downward course, and darting off with won- 

 derful swiftness for a short space, mounts again al- 

 most perpendicularly. So great is the muscular power 

 of its wing, that these evolutions are continued for 

 hours almost without rest. 



While the Night Hawk seems to be very generally 

 distributed over the territory of the United States 

 lying north of Louisiana, the Whip-poor-will and 

 Chuck-wills-widow are confined to much narrower 

 limits, the former not extending its migrations 

 much north of New York and the southern parts of 

 Maine, and the latter seldom being seen north of 

 Virginia. 



By some the Whip-poor-will has been confounded 

 with the Night Hawk, but the difference in their 

 habits marks them as distinct species ; the fact that 

 the latter retires to its roosting-place just as the for- 

 mer is emerging from its seclusion, may have led 

 some careless observers to conclude they were the 

 same. The Whip-poor-will is strictly a nocturnal 

 bird, never appearing abroad by daylight except when 

 forced by circumstances; but no sooner has the sun 

 disappeared behind the western hills, and the shades 

 of evening have closed around the thicket which 

 gives it cover by day, than it bestirs itself, and peeps 

 out upon the dim landscape over which the pale moon 

 is casting a feeble glare. It is then that its sweet 



