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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the month of August. These flights usually progress in a southwesterly 

 direction. This would seem to indicate that the principal line of migra- 

 tion extends down the Ohio- Mississippi valley. I have noticed these 

 flights several years in Erie county passing in this same general direction. 

 Habits. The Nighthawk is much more diurnal in habits than 



the Whippoorwill, and frequently 

 is seen flying about in the bright 

 daylight high in the air, with slow, 

 measured wing strokes, occasion- 

 ally darting swiftly downward; at 

 other times with rapid flapping of 

 the wings succeeded by a graceful 

 soaring. The wings appear ex- 

 tremely long and crooked. As 

 the birds fly about seeking for 

 beetles, flies, moths and other in- 

 sects, they occasionally give voice 

 to a loud nasal " peent, peent,'" and 

 sometimes to a squeaky, querulous 

 " aek-aek." In the mating season 

 when the Nighthawk is wheeling 

 about high in the air, he suddenly 

 plunges headlong toward the earth 

 Photo by Guy a. Bailey \) U i t j ust before striking the ground , 



Nighthawk's eggs on gravel roof 



suddenly glides upward again, at 

 the same time producing a roaring sound by the air rushing through 

 the wing feathers, which has been likened to the noise made by blowing 

 across the mouth of an empty bottle, or the bunghole of a barrel. 

 Although the Nighthawk is frequently seen in cloudy weather during 

 the middle of the day, he certainly prefers to hunt in the evening and 

 early morning, and his notes are often heard late at night as he hawks 

 about for insects high in the air. Like the Whippoorwill, the Nighthawk 



