INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 



139 



THE NIGHTUAWK. 



Fig. 133. — Nighthawk. After Brehm. 



Back blackish, marked with whitish or cream ; white bar on 

 wings ; tail blackish, forked ; broad white band on throat and white 

 band on tail of male; under parts barred with black and white. 

 Nests on ground. But few who have walked in field and woods have 

 not flushed this bird resting inconspicuously on ground or limb of a 

 tree, and we are all familiar with its graceful evolutions in the air 

 during afternoon and evening, where its rather harsh cry at once 

 draws our attention. Frequently a bird closes its wings and drops 

 swiftly, again soaring upward just before reaching the ground. At 

 such times one hears a booming sound, something similar to the noise 

 made by blowing across the large mouth of a bottle. Just how this 

 is produced appears to be a matter of question among ornithologists. 

 Some claim it is made by the air rushing through the stiff wing 

 feathers, called primaries. The food of the Nighthawk appears to be 

 May flies, dragon flies, beetles, certain water insects which fly in the 

 evening, many bugs and grasshoppers. From seven specimens se- 

 cured in Nebraska Professor Aughey took three hundred and forty- 

 eight Rocky Mountain Locusts (one of our most injurious insects). 

 In an Arkansas specimen F. L. Harvey found more than six hun- 



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