NIGHT-HAWK. 39 



some three or four Goatsuckers, just at day-dawn, 

 while I strolled tlirough the pastures of a pen in St. 

 Andrew's, where I was visiting. The morning twi- 

 light had spread a clear glassy gloom over the whole 

 cloudless expanse around and above me ; and as no 

 direct ray shone on the woods and fields, which lay 

 silent and sombre beneath, — the flitting birds were 

 seen distinctly, like dark mo\T[ng spots against the 

 grey sky. I was struck with the sudden shifts by 

 triangles which they were seen to make. They 

 never moved very far from one to another direction, 

 but darted backward and forward over a space of 

 some five hundred yards, preserving a pretty con- 

 stant horizontal traverse, over some trees in a 

 near pasture, whose honeyed fragrance on the morn- 

 ing air told that they were in blossom. Occasionally 

 only, they rose and sank so as suddenly to change 

 their elevation above the clumps of foliage. Yarrell 

 observes that Goatsuckers are remarkable for beat- 

 ing over very circumscribed spaces ; but I have not 

 found any one who notices their cutting in and out 

 by triangular shifts. It is not so perceptible in the 

 obscurity of the evening, but in the perspicuous- 

 ness of day-dawn it is plainly visible ; and I made 

 a note of it, and dotted in the angular appearance 

 at the time." 



In some parts of Jamaica this bird bears the 

 appellation, most absurdly misapplied, of " Turtle- 

 dove :" it is occasionally shot for the table, being 

 usually fat and plump. It is a very beautiful bird. 

 The stomach, protuberant below the sternum, 

 is a large globular sac ; the other viscera are small. 



