INSESSORES : CAPRIMULGID^:. 



159 



Night-Hawk, C. popetue, Baird. 



wing throughout the entire day, Fig - Ior - 



especially if it be cloudy. They 

 are generally most active just 

 before night, and retire to rest 

 at dark. Their loud, squeaking 

 notes, are familiar to all. The 

 singular loud and half-boom- 

 ing sound which they make in 

 plunging from a great height 

 is said to be produced by the 

 concussion caused by the new 

 position of the wings at the 

 moment when the bird passes 

 the centre of its plunge and 

 commences the ascent. The 

 Night-Hawk makes no nest, 

 but deposits its two oval, freckled eggs on the bare 

 ground, or on a flat rock, in fields or in very open woods. 



Some persons suppose that the Night-Hawk and Whip- 

 poorwill are identical, but they do not even belong to 

 the same genus. The Night-Hawk has the bristles of 

 the bill hardly appreciable, wings sharp-pointed, longer 

 than the tail, which is rather narrow, and forked or emar- 

 ginate. The Whippoorwill has the mouth margined by 

 long stiff bristles, the wings short, not reaching the end 

 of the tail, which is short and rounded ; and they differ 

 in their colors and markings. 



The Western Night-Hawk, C. Hcnryi, Cass., of New 

 Mexico, and the Texas Night-Hawk, C. Tcxensis, Law- 

 rence, are other North American species. 



The Sub-Order of Clamatores comprises birds which 

 have three toes before and one behind, and the latter not 

 versatile ; the primaries ten, the first nearly as long as 

 the second ; and the tail feathers usually twelve. It com- 

 prises three Families, Alcedinidae or Kingfisher Fam- 



