296 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



intervals. Their diet would seem to be entirely insectivorus 

 and among the various things I have known them to eat are 

 Sphinx moths of various species, Actias luna, Samia cecropia,' 

 Samia Columbia, Telea polyphemus, and a great variety of 

 species of Noctuidae, also grasshoppers, crickets, mosquitoes, 

 caddis flies, and in fact almost any sort of insect available. 

 The species is therefore highly beneficial and should be rigidly 

 protected. 



Genus CHORDEILES Swainson. 



420. Chordeiles vtrginiamis (Gmel.). Nighthawk; Bull- 

 bat; Mosquito Hawk; Pork and Beans; Will o' the Wisp; 

 Pisk; Piramidig; Cow-milker. 



Plumage of adult male : above black, marked with white and buff or 

 ochraceous ; a prominent white bar crossing the primaries ; outer tail feathers 

 with white band near end and partial bars of buff ; white throat band ; chin 

 and upper breast black with light tips to feathers ; belly barred black and 

 white. Plumage of adult female : tail without white ; throat ochraceous 

 buff ; under parts more or less ochraceous tinged ; otherwise similar to male. 

 Immature birds : more finely and profusely mottled below, otherwise much 

 like female. Wing 7.90 ; culmen 0.25. 



Geog. Dist— Eastern North America north to Labrador, south to Florida 

 and west to the Great Plains, and in Washington, Oregon and northern 

 California ; winters in Central and South America. 



County Records.^ — Androscoggin; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; common at Fort Fairfield, (Batchelder, B. N. 0. C. 7, p. 150) ; 

 summer resident north to the Woolastook Valley, (Knight). Cumberland; 

 common summer resident, (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, 

 (Swain). Hancock; common summer resident, (Knight). Kennebec ; quite 

 common summer resident, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; summer resident, 

 (Rackliff). Oxford ; breeds commonly, (Nash). Penobscot; common summer 

 resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; common, (Homer). Sagadahoc; common 

 summer resident, (Spinney). Somerset; common summer resident, (Morrell)- 

 Waldo; common summer resident, (Knight). Washington; abundant sum. 

 mer resident, (Boardman). York; common summer resident, (Adams). 



Though somewhat local the species is a common and generally 



distributed species in most sections of the State. It arrives 



from the south sometimes as early as May 13, more often about 



May 20, and departs in late August, a few stragglers remaining 



