CAPRIMULGID.E—CAPRIMULGIN.E: TRUE GOA TSUCKERS. 



569 



outer ,^i'e, alxmt midway between their base and tip; seeoiidaries like jiriiiiaries, but with 

 whitish tips and imperfect cross-bars. Sexes nearly alike: o witli wliite spaces on the quills, 

 l)ut those on tail replaced by tawny or not evident. Young similar, with v\'ing-spots from the 

 nest, but the markings finer and more intricately blended, iu effect more like Antrostomus ; quills 

 edged and tipped with tawny. Lengtli 9.00 or more; extent about 2.3 00; wiug about 8.00; 

 tail 4.50; whole foot J. 25; culnien scarcely 0.25; gape about 1.25. Temperate N. Am., 

 chiefly Eastern, abundant; migratory; l)ree(ls tliroughout its N. Am. range; winters beyond, 

 in the Bahamas, Central, and much of South America. The N. limit is reached in Labrador, 

 the region immediately S. of Hudson's Hay and N. of Lake Winnipeg, and farther N. W. to 

 lat. 65°; western limits uncertain, owing to blending with the two next varieties; but speci- 

 mens indistinguishable from the stock form occur iu British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 

 and California. The extensive migrations occur in Ajtril and .May, and from late August 

 through October. This species dies abroad at all times, though perhaps most active toward 



Flo. iiSG. — Night-hawk, or Bull-bat, ^ nat. size. (From Brehm. Bill too briotly. ) 



evening and iu dull weather; and is generally seen in companies, busily foraging for insects with 

 rapid, easy, and protracted Hight; in the breeding season it performs curious evolutions, falling 

 through the air with a loud booming sound. No nest; 2 eggs laid May-July, mostly in June, 

 on bare ground or rock in field or pasture (often burnt over) or <ni a flat city roof, l.'ii X 

 0.87 to 1.10 X 0.80, averaging 1.20 X 0.85, more or less elliptical, finely variegated with stone- 

 gray and other neutral tints, over which is scratched and fretted dark olive-iiray; but the pat- 

 tern and tints are too variable to be conci.sely described. The general effect is a dark marbling. 

 I'lie young hatch (•overe<l with Huffy down, whitish below, varied with blackish and brown 

 ai)ove, thus resembling tlieir native earth. It may be necessary in tliis family for the young 

 to be covered from the first, to protect them from the c(dd ground. On being disturbed while 

 brooding the female feigns lameness, dragging and fluttering about, moaning piteoiisly, and will 

 sometimes remove her young. The Night-hawk has been given in previous editions of the Key 

 as (J. jxjpetue, f(dlowing Baird's adoption iu 1858 of Vieillot's barbarous name, applied to the 

 9 in 1807. This was in consequence of .some uncertainty supposed to attach to the Ca]>ri- 

 iniilgus rirginianus of the older ornithologists, that of Vieillot being tlie Whippoorwill, and 

 that of Brisson, 1700, for example, applying to the Night-hawk in part only. But as there 

 seems to he no necessary doubt about C. riiffininnxs (Jm. S. N. I. 1788, p. 1028, I am ghnl to 

 lollow the A. O. n. Committee in drop])ing the objectionable ;>ri/j(7//r'. 



<'. V. siMi'iK'tti. (To Geo. B. Sennett, the distinguished ornithologist.) Sf.NNKTT'.s Nkiiit- 

 II AWK. This is that pale subspecies of the Night-hawk which is characteristic of the un- 



