238 NOTES ON THE 



woods during the entire summer. Almost uniformly, as soon 

 as it became dark, the Whip-poor-will came onto a log not 

 more than twenty yards from the rear of the house and poured 

 forth his song for an hour or two when he would disappear, or 

 rather his notes would be discontinued until after midnight, 

 then they would again ring out clear and sonorously antil the 

 day dawned. I frequently caught sight of him in the bright 

 moonlight nights and a few times in the twilight before he 

 began his half-sad, half-cheery melody. They are rarely seen 

 in the day time and then only by accident. At such times I 

 have uniformly found them sitting either upon the ground or 

 on an old log but slightly elevated above it. They are then 

 apparently very stupid and will allow one to approach quite 

 near them before flying, and when they do it is but a short 

 distance to where they will alight again. They are universally 

 distributed in timber and brush land over the State. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill remarkably small with tubular nostrils and the gape 

 with long, stiff bristles; wings long, somewhat rounded, 

 second quill longest, the primaries emarginated; tail rounded; 

 plumage loose and soft. Bristles without lateral filaments; 

 top of head ashy-brown, longitudinally streaked with black; 

 terminal half of the tail feathers (except the four central) 

 dirty-white on both outer and inner webs; iris dark hazel. No 

 white on the tail of the female. 



Length, 10; wing, 6.50. 



Habitat, eastern United States to the plains. 



CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS (Gmelin) (420) 



NIGHTHAWK. 



A very remarkable circumstance connected with this species 

 was its appearance in Fillmore county on April 5th, 1884, (Dr. 

 Hvoslef) and its disappearance again until May 12th. The 

 time of its arrival has varied considerably through all the years 

 of my personal observation of its habits here, but in no instance 

 have I retained a record of it before the 30th of April. As a 

 general thing, I have found them here first about the 10th of 

 May, and not unfrequently as late as the 20th. In the early 

 history of the city where I reside, great numbers of the night- 

 hawks could be seen at evening, or rather, beginning a little 

 before sunset, and extending quite into the twilight, evidently 

 feeding upon the abounding mosquitoes, which have become 

 almost extinct in the city of late years. On warm, cloudy days, 



