CAPRIMULGID^E. CIIORDEILES VIRGINIANUS. 87 



specimens of this bird, both, male and female, exhibiting no observable variation in 

 their plumage. These observations fix with some probable approach to exactness 

 the distribution of this handsome species during the breeding season, showing that 

 it is found throughout Texas, New Mexico, the more northern provinces of Mexico, 

 the Indian Territories, Kansas, and Nebraska, and thence to the Pacific; and that it 

 is in all probability to be found in the State of California, as well as in the Territo- 

 ries of Washington and Oregon. 



The peculiar and uncertain blending of shades make a verbal description of the 

 eggs supposed to belong to this species difficult and unsatisfactory, and one which 

 can only be approximated. It is almost exactly elliptical in shape, equal at either 

 end, measures 1 inch in length and if of an inch in breadth. Its ground color, 

 examined through a magnifying-glass, appears to be a yellowish-white, but is so 

 generally marbled and spotted with blotches of a purplish-gray and smaller spottings 

 of a light umber-brown, that the ground is hardly distinguishable to the naked eye. 



CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS. 



Caprimulgus virginianus, BKISSON, Orn. II. 1760, 477. 

 " " BONAP. Syn. 1828, p. 62. 



" " RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 337. 



" NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 619. 



" " II, 1834, 609. 



" AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1835, 233 ; V, 407 ; pi. cxlvii. 



Caprimulgus popetue, VIEILL. Ois d'Am. Sept. I, 1807, 56, pi. xxiv. 

 Caprimulgus americanus, WILSON, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 65, pi. xl. 

 Chordeiles virginianus, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 8. 

 " " AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 32. 



" " Birds of Am. I, 1840, 159, pi. xliii. 



" " GOSSE, Birds of Jamaica, 1847, p. 33. 



DE KAY, Nat. Hist. N. Y., Birds, 1844, pi. xxvi, fig. 60. 

 " ' LEMBEYE, Aves de la Isla de Cuba, 1850, p. 51. 



VULG. The Night-Haivk. The Pisk. Peesquaw (Cree Indians). Musquito-Haick. Pira- 

 midig (Jamaica). Berequetec (Cuba). 



THE geographical distribution of the Night-Hawk is very nearly the same as that 

 of the Whip-poor-will, though somewhat more extended. While not found, in its 

 breeding season, quite so far to the south, its distribution, especially along the At- 

 lantic coast, extends considerably farther to the north. I have met with it through- 

 out the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It has been found in all 

 parts of Canada, and has even been met with breeding as far to the north as the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay. It is also widely diffused from east to west, although the 

 extent of its distribution in the latter direction is not known with exactness or cer- 



