LAND BIRDS. 377 



"more abundant; back, scapulars and wing-coverts similar, the degree of "frosting" quite 

 variable, the black markings tending to become cross-shaped; primaries blackish, spotted 

 and barred with rusty brown on both webs; chin and breast brownish black to sooty black, 

 more or less freckled with buff, the throat with a pure white collar; sides and belly buffy 

 white, finely and irregularly barred with black; middle tail-feathers like the back, the 

 others blackish, spotted and imperfectly barred with rusty buff, the three outer pairs 

 mostly pvu-e or buffy white, on the terminal half. 



Adult female: Similar to male, but the white collar often buffy tinted, and the white 

 of the tail much more restricted, only the tips of the three outer pairs being whitish (usually 

 buffy). 



Length 9.50 to 10 inches; wing 5.80 to 6.70; tail 5.10 to 6.50. 



174. Nighthawk. Chordeiles virginianus virginianus (Gmelin). (420) 



Synonyms: Bull-bat, IMusquito Hawk, Will-o-the-wisp. — Caprimulgus popetue Vieill. 

 — Chordeiles popetue, Baird. — Caprimulgus virginianus, Gmelin, 1789. — Cliordeiles 

 americanus, DeKay. 



Plate XXXIX. 



The goat-sucker characteristics, plus the white wing-spots, mark this 

 species. See remarks under Whippoorwill and examine plate. 



Distribution. — Northern and eastern North America, west to the Great 

 Plains and central British Columbia, and from Labrador south through 

 tropical America to the Argentine RepubHc. 



One of the best known of our summer birds and one of the latest to arrive 

 from the south. It is rarely seen even in the southern counties before 

 the 10th of May and frequently does not arrive until the 15th or 20th. 

 Its nesting is correspondingly late and eggs are rarely found before the 

 first week in June, while many are deposited late in that month or even 

 early in July. Captain Bendire states that the earhest date on which he 

 has known eggs to be deposited in the north was on May 27, in southern 

 Michigan. He further states that as a rule only a single brood is reared 

 in a season, but that a second laying occurs if the first is destroyed. He 

 gives the period of incubation as sixteen days and states that both sexes 

 assist. 



The eggs are laid on the bare ground, usually in an open field or on a 

 bare rock, or not infrequently on the flat and gravelled roofs of buildings 

 in cities and towns. We have never known the eggs to be laid in woods 

 or even in the shade of a bush, but invariably in the open. In this respect 

 the bird is entirely unlike the Whippoorwill, which always lays its eggs in 

 the woods. The eggs, according to Ridgway, are pale olive buff, buffy 

 white, grayish white, etc., thickly speckled and dashed with deep brown, 

 olive, blackish, and usually with pale bluish gray. They average 1.19 

 by .85 inches. In regard to the coloration of the eggs Bendire says "There 

 is endless variation in the markings. Scarcely any two sets resemble 

 each other closely, and I consider the egg of the Nighthawk one of the most 

 difficult ones known to me to describe satisfactorily." 



The note of the Nighthawk is a peculiar, loud, nasal call which may be 

 heard at a long distance and once heard is not likely to be confounded with 

 any other bird note. It is, however, very difficult to describe. Bendire 

 speaks of it as "their querulous and squeaky call note sounding like ceh-eek. 

 ceh-eek, or speek-ftpcck," Chapman, however, doscril)CS it better as "a 

 loud nasal peent." 



It files freely by day, but is rather crepuscular than diurnal or nocturnal. 

 During its soutlnvard migrations it may be seen in Large, hiose flocks flying 



