FAMILY Caprimulgide. 
wilson had a fair idea of the responsive character of 
the Whip-poor-will’s singing, but of course he had no 
conception of the musical relationship of the keys in 
which the bird sang; he writes, ‘‘ when two or more 
males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations become 
much more rapid and incessant, as if each were strain- 
ing to overpower or silence the other. When near you 
often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At 
these times they fly low, not more than a few feet from 
the ground, skimming about the house and before the 
door, alighting on the wood-pile, or settling on the roof.” 
The bird sings during the early hours of the evening, 
or all night if it is a moon-lit one, and the springtime. 
He does his hunting along water-courses and on the 
borders of the woods, his large mouth enabling him 
to readily catch insects as he flies. By imitating the 
song I have often lured one to such close quarters that 
the wings have almost brushed my hat. It is certainly 
a very common bird throughout the Pemigewasset 
Valley. 
Nighthawk The Nighthawk is a very near relative 
Cionetctce of the Whip-poor-will, and singularly 
virginianus : ‘ 5 
L. 10.00 inches CNOugh is often mistaken for it. But the 
May 20th characters and markings of the birds are 
distinctly different. The tone of the Nighthawk’s 
color is a blackish sepia brown. Upper parts black, 
thickly marked with white and buff; wings and tail 
sepia; the middle of the larger wing feathers marked 
with a white spot, the spots forming collectively 
@ conspicuous white wing-bar. Tail feathers marked 
with buff on a sepia ground, and all but the middle ones 
white-banded near the end; throat with a broad white 
band; under parts barred with black and white often 
tinged with buff. The female is similarly marked, but 
lacks the white on tail and throat, the latter is ochre- 
buff. Egg gray-white profusely speckled with gray- 
makes two tones of it, separated by an interval of a third. One 
can not produce this effect by imitating the Whip-poor-will’s song 
strictly a tempo; it is impossible to do anything else than bounce on 
that middle syllable. 
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