June 
cular or twilight birds—not altogether inactive 
during the day (especially when it is cloudy), 
and sometimes roaming about very late in the 
evening ; but finding their most congenial pe- 
riod of activity—which among birds chiefly 
means foraging for food—during the short inter- 
val of half-light. 
Occasionally during the day, oftener at dusk, 
I have seen or heard,-as anyone in the country 
is likely to do during the summer months, that 
very familiar specimen of the crepuscular birds, 
but much better known by its sound than other- 
wise—the ‘‘night-hawk.’’ The only excep- 
tions that can be taken to the name are that it 
is not a ‘‘night’’ bird, as it flies about mostly 
at dusk, sometimes in midday, nor yet is ita 
hawk, being called so only from a resemblance 
when on the wing, and in its general appearance 
at a distance. ‘This bird and the whippoorwill 
are allied, and resemble each other as closely as 
twins, both being just about as large as a rob- 
in, and ‘‘ indescribably variegated or mottled 
with several quiet colors.’’ In one the tail is 
forked, in the other rounded, and the night- 
hawk has a white patch on the wing, which is 
lacking in the other. Otherwise they are well- 
nigh indistinguishable. Probably there is not 
185 
