ighthawk 179 



America. Life without insects would be im- 

 possible for him. 



When he is coursing -low above the fields, 

 with quick, erratic, bat-like turns, notice the 

 white spots, almost forming a bar across his 

 wings, for they will help you to distinguish him 

 from the whip-poor-will, who carries his white 

 signals on the outer feathers of his tail. Both 

 of these cousins wear the same colours, only 

 they put them on differently, the whip-poor-will 

 having his chiefly mottled, the nighthawk his 

 chiefly barred. The latter wears a broader 

 white band across his throat. His mate sub- 

 stitutes buff for his white decorations. 



Like the mother whip-poor-will, she makes 

 no nest but places her two speckled treasures 

 in some sunny spot, either on the bare ground, 

 on a rock, or even on the fiat roof of a house. 

 Since electric lights attract so many insects 

 to the streets of towns and villages, the enter- 

 prising nighthawk often forsakes the country 

 to rear her children w^here they may enjoy the 

 benefits of modern improvements. 



Both the nighthawk and the whip-poor-will 

 belong to the goatsucker family. Did you ever 

 hear a more ridiculous name? Eighty-five 

 innocent birds of this tribe, found in most parts 

 of the world, have to bear it because some care- 

 less observer may have seen one of their number 

 flying among a herd of goats in Europe to catch 



