370 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
the wing quills as the bird drops through the air after its 
winged food. 
“The Nighthawk builds no nest, but lays its eggs on a 
bare rock in a field, amid the stones of rocky ground, on 
roofs even of city houses. Again does colour protection 
aid a bird, for the arrangements of its markings blend 
the Nighthawk with granite as perfectly as those of the 
Whip-poor-will conceal it in the woods. 
“The Nighthawk, whose erratic flight makes it a target 
that piques the skill of a certain class of sportsmen, has 
frequently been shot at for prowess, the excuse being that 
it ‘wasn’t any good, anyway.’ Aside from the list of in- 
sects harmful to agriculture and domestic animals that 
it destroys, let us remember its crowning virtue, and cry 
‘Hands off!’ It kills mosquitoes, and has thus earned 
the local name of Mosquito-hawk. 
‘Tt is hard to believe that any one should insist that 
the Nighthawk and the Whip-poor-will are one and the 
same bird, but such has been the case, and among intelli- 
gent people also, though the mistake has been definitely 
settled by one of the Wise Men. 
A NIGHTHAWK INCIDENT 
A discussion of the specifie distinctness of the Whip- 
poor-will and Nighthawk, following an address to Con- 
necticut agriculturists some years ago, led to my receipt, 
in July, 1900, of an invitation from a gentleman who was 
present, to come and see a bird then nesting on his farm 
that he believed combined the characters of both the 
Whip-poor-will and Nighthawk; in short, was the bird to 
which both these names applied. 
