254 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



(fairly common). — Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 68, 1929, p. 317 

 (Haina, Bonao, specimens). 



Chordeiles minor victims, Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 68, 1929, 

 p. 37 (San ThomS, specimen). 



Summer resident ; locally common. 



The nighthawk is migrant in Hispaniola, according to available 

 information arriving in April and nesting in May and June. It is 

 a bird that prefers pasturelands and other open country and does 

 not range in dense forests as do other goatsuckers except to rest occa- 

 sionally in trees. Nighthawks appear in the air toward sunset or 

 on cloudy days, and fly steadily with strong beats of their long wings 

 in zigzag, irregular course across the sky in search of insect food 

 which they capture on the wing in their broadly opened mouths. 

 As the dusk of evening deepens they come to lower elevations when 

 they may sweep back and forth barely above the ground. The name 

 of " hawk," given to them apparently because of their long, narrow 

 wings, is a misnomer since they are members of the family of goat- 

 suckers or nightjars. They rest on the ground or on the limbs of 

 trees, in the latter case always perching longitudinally along the 

 limb. The date of departure from Hispaniola for their unknown 

 winter home somewhere in South America is not at present known. 



The earliest report of the nighthawk on the island, that of Oviedo 

 in the sixteenth century, relates probably to the Dominican Repub- 

 lic. He says " hay en esta isla aves may ores que vengejos, e 

 las alas tienen y el vuelo de la mesina forma, e vuelan 

 con tanto velocidad e con aquella manera de voltear, subiendo y 

 descendiendo, dando vueltas en el ayre. E no salen ni se veen sino 

 el tiempo que el sol se entra debaxo del horigonte, e tambien 

 algunas veces si el sol no paresce, por estar el cielo nubloso." He 

 describes further their notes which may be heard at a distance and 

 remarks that they are great enemies to bats, striking at them in 

 the air, a curious statement of uncertain foundation. Cory, who 

 secured three at La Vega, July 31 and August 2 and 4, 1883, remarks 

 that the nighthawk is abundant in many localities in the summer 

 months. Christy found them also at La Vega and writes that 

 he observed nine at one time. Verrill writes that they were com- 

 mon in the savannas of the interior. Peters reports that the first 

 of the returning migrants appeared on the north coast near Sosua 

 on April 10, 1916, the night before his departure from the island. 

 Kaempfer reported them as the most common of the family found 

 throughout the Dominican Eepublic. He was told that they nested 

 on the ground in dry stony localities. They were found resting 

 in low trees and appeared on the wing as the sun set, or sometimes 

 earlier on cloudy days. He recorded a flock of fifty or more in May 

 near Jarabacoa. Hartert writes us that the Tring Museum received 



