LIST AND DESCRIPTION wee 
PARIMEY CAPRIMULGIDA "GOATSUCKERS 
Five species of Goatsuckers—two Whippoorwills and 
three Nighthawks—are summer residents of South Dakota. 
The Goatsuckers are birds of the morning and evening, 
- between day birds and night flying Owls. By day they are 
perched on fence posts, limbs of trees or on the ground, and they 
are so nearly like their surroundings that, but for their form, 
the eye could scarcely detect them. At evening these birds 
mount on wing and may be seen circling and wheeling high in the 
air, where they gather flying insects and moths into their large, 
bristle rimmed mouths. Their two white eggs are always laid 
upon the ground or upon leaves. 
417. WhHtppoorwiL_ (Antrostomus vociferus vociferus.) 
This bird resembles the Nighthawks but is_ slightly 
smaller, and gray predominates on the upper parts rather than 
the mixed colors. 
A bird of the woods, where moths in abundance fly at 
night. In the day it perches lengthwise upon a limb or beside 
a stump, and its protective coloration is almost perfect. 
Its call, a repeated “whip-poor-will,” has been heard from 
the woods along the Missouri River and as far north as Brook- 
ings. 
418. Poorwiti (Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nuttalli.) 
A summer resident west of the Missouri River. Smaller 
than the Whippoorwill and with more rufous plumage, the gen- 
eral appearance being lighter. It always rests on the ground 
during the day. 
420. NiGHTHAWK (Chordeiles virginianus virginianus.) 
The range of this Nighthawk is east of South Dakota, but 
it is frequently seen in the eastern half of the State. 
About ten inches in length, and the darkest of all the Goat- 
sucker family. Above, black with white and buff mixed; under 
parts black, barred with white. Throat white in the male and 
rusty in the female. 
Just as the Whippoorwill is a bird of the woods, the 
Nighthawk is a bird of the prairies. 
