THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 255 



two skins from Kaempfer, a male taken at Manabao, in the west- 

 ern part of the Province of La Vega, not far from the head of the 

 Kio Yaqui del Norte, May 2, 1923, and a female in worn dress from 

 Tiibano, August 16, 1923. Wetmore saw one near Comendador April 

 30, and at Constanza from May 18 to 28 recorded them regularly. 

 They appeared high in the air above the village, always at sundown, 

 coming from the north, northeast, or east, and passed down the 

 valley to the west. It appeared almost that they moved down to 

 some lower altitude where the evening air was warmer and there- 

 fore more favorable to flying insects. Most of those seen were males 

 but occasionally a pair appeared when the male dashed down fre- 

 quently past his mate to check suddenly and produce a peculiar 

 roaring, whirring sound that carried for long distances. In the 

 intervals in this display he called steadily and frequently suspended 

 his wing strokes to hold his wings in a broadly open V above his 

 back while he sailed for a short distance. The Spanish name of 

 querebebe is given in imitation of the call of the male, which to 

 Wetmore 7 s ear resembled rather the syllables chitty-chit chitty-chit 

 uttered rapidly. Danforth in the summer of 1927 found nighthawks 

 fairly common, recording them at Seibo, Hato Mayor, Santo Do- 

 mingo City, Los Alcarrizos, Bonao, Monte Cristi, and San Juan. 

 Moltoni reports one taken by Ciferri at San Thome, Province of 

 Azua, August 20, 1929. Others that he lists under the name gund- 

 lackii from Haina, August 12, 1926, and Bonao May 4 and 8, 1927, 

 the last taken from the nest, are also mentioned here. 



In Haiti nighthawks were reported by Paul Bartsch April 21 

 and 22, 1917 between Port-au-Prince and St. Marc. June 28, 1917, 

 Abbott collected a female at Port a l'Ecu on the north coast, and 

 May 19 and 22 he secured three females on Tortue, where he recorded 

 them as nesting on pebbly sea beaches. At Jean Rabel Anchorage 

 he collected two eggs, one on May 29 and the second on June 2, 1917. 

 In each case the parent was flushed from the egg which was deposited 

 without nesting material among the pebbles of a gravelly sea beach. 

 These eggs are elongate in form and measure 29.5 by 21.1 and 33.4 

 by 22.0 mm. The disparity in size between the two is somewhat 

 remarkable. The ground color of these eggs is dull white with a 

 slight gloss, speckled evenly everywhere with fine spots, in the 

 larger egg of fuscous-black, and in the smaller one of neutral gray. 

 Bond found nighthawks common on Tortue Island, records them 

 at Port-de-Paix, and says that they were particularly numerous near 

 Acul Samedi both on the lowland plains and in the pine forests 

 of the hills. 



Wetmore recorded two at Fonds-des-Negres on April 2, 1927, 

 and near Hinche from April 22 to 24 found them common. Two 

 were taken here on the latter date. The birds were found over 



