THE NIGHT HA WK. 385 



manner of producing the sound, however, we shall never 

 know till some ethereal personage can take his point of ob- 

 servation high in air, and, without alarming the bird, note 

 exactly its method. The booming is mostly confined to 

 the breeding season, though it is sometimes heard in 

 \ autumn. 



These birds do not confine themselves to insect-food ob- 

 in the upper air, but also search the ground. Wilson 

 shot them on the 14th of August, with their stomachs al- 

 most exclusively filled with crickets. From one of them 

 he took " nearly a common snuff-box full of these insects, 

 all seemingly fresh swallowed." I have also good evidence 

 that in the more northern localities, they regale themselves 

 on ripe currants. 



Nine inches long, the Night Hawk is black or dusky 

 above, variously mottled with brown and brownish-white, 

 with narrow black and whitish rings below, the male having 

 white markings in the wings and forked tail, and a rather 

 large triangular or crescent-shaped white spot on the breast, 

 the female having smaller white markings in the wings only, 

 and a reddish mark on the breast. 



The two eggs of the Night Hawk, placed on the ground 

 in some open pasture or thicket a burnt spot seems pref- 

 erable, as harmonizing best with the color, alike of the eggs 

 and of the bird without a nest sometimes on the flat roof 

 of a house in a city, are about 1.25X-88, elliptical, the 

 ground of grayish or creamy-white, being thickly specked 

 and spotted all over with a greenish-brown and several shades 

 of lilac. The eggs are generally laid early in June, but I 

 have seen the young, not yet fully fledged, as late as July 

 21st, thus indicating, perhaps a second brood. 



The summer range of this bird is from Central North 

 America to Hudson's Bay, while its winter migrations may 

 25 



