1 1 4 The Birds of Albany County 



SUBORDER CAPRIMULGI 



Family Caprimulgidae 



NlGHTHAWK. — Chordeiles virginianus. 10.00 



Common Summer Resident 



Field marks. — White bar on wings; broad white band across 

 throat; tail forked; rest of bird appears blackish in flight. 



On summer mornings, between the hours of four and five 

 o'clock, when day is just breaking, the harsh peei of the 

 Nighthawk is a familiar sound over Albany. So shrill and 

 penetrating is the bird's cry that it can be heard over the hum 

 of the trolley cars and the rattle of the early-going milk-carts. 

 Persons who never give any sort of a bird a thought, frequently 

 are seen to turn their gaze upward in questioning wonder, as 

 though they would like to know what this bold, aerial marauder 

 might be. Sometimes the birds swoop down close to the tops 

 of the buildings, but straightway sweep rapidly upward, 

 sometimes to a great height. In the early evening the birds 

 are just as common over the City, though their presence is not 

 so noticeable, for the noise of the city is greater. 



In performing these evolutions the Nighthawk is simply 

 foraging for flies and gnats, which he engulfs in his wide 

 mouth; in other words he eats as he flies; not because he 

 hasn't time to stop, but because that is the way it was ordained 

 he should live. Nighthawks appear to me to be only partly 

 nocturnal; I have never heard them in the middle of the night, 

 and have never encountered them in the extreme light of the 



