NKiHTHAWK. 255 



and arc easily cai-ricd tVoiii the fact of their hein;;- li^ht. <)ii the 

 middle toe is a curiously pectinated claw, wliich is supposed to l)e 

 useful for i-idding the bird of the insects with which it is trou))led. 

 Wlien distuilx'd in the woods, if it ali,<i;hts on a branch it always 

 sits lengthways, in which position it is \ei-v apt to be mistaken for a 

 growth, and escape observation. 



It is one of the few birds whose call can be intelliniblv put into- 

 words. The expei-iment is often tried with other species, but in verj- 

 few instances can they lie printed so as to be recognized when heard 

 out of doors. 



Genus CHORDEILES Swainson. 

 CHORDETLES VrRGTNTANUS (Gmel.). 



181. Niffhthawk. (4i>0) 



Above, mottled with Ijlack, hrowli, gray and tawny, the former in excess ; 

 below from the breast, transversely bari-ed with blackish and white or pale 

 fulvous ; throat in the male, witli a large white, in the female tawny, cross-bar ; 

 tail, blackish, with distant pale marbled cross-bars and a large white spot 

 (wanting in the female) on one or both webs of all the feathers toward the end ; 

 quills, dusky, unmarked except by one large white spot on five outer primaries 

 about midway between their base and tip ; in t\\e female this ai-ea is restricted 

 or not pure white. Length, about 9 ; wing, 8 ; tail, o. 



Hab. — Northern and Eastern North America, east of the (ireat Plains, 

 south through tropical America to Buenos Ayres. 



Eggs, two, deposited on rocks or on the ground, or among the gravel of a 

 flat-roofe<l house in the city. They vary from pale olive-buff to buffy and 

 grayish-white thickly mottled and daubed with varied tints of darker gray 

 slate, olive or even blackish mixed with a marbling of purplish-gray, both 

 pattern and tints being very variable. 



This is a well-known and abundant summer resident, arriving- 

 from the south early in May. Though a Nighthawk, it is often seen 

 abroad by day during cloudy weather, and in the evening, just as 

 the sun is sinking below the horizon, numbers of these birds are 

 occasionally seen careering around high overhead, uttering their 

 peculiar cry, so readily recognized, yet so difficult either to imitate 

 or describe. While thus \n the exercise of their most wonderful 

 powers of flight, and performing many graceful aerial evolutions,, 

 they will suddenly change their course and plunge headlong down- 

 wards with great rapidity, producing at the same time a singular 

 booming sound which can be heard for some distance. Again, as 



