NIGHT-HAWK. 445 



each side of the neck; the bill is exceeding small, scarcely one- 

 eighth of an inch in length, and of a black colour; the nostrils 

 circular, and surrounded with a prominent rim; eye large and 

 full, of a deep bluish black; the legs are short, feathered a little 

 below the knees, and, as well as the toes, of a purplish flesh 

 colour, seamed with white; the middle claw is pectinated on its 

 inner edge, to serve as a comb to clear the bird of vermin; the 

 whole lower parts of the body are marked with transverse lines 

 of dusky and yellowish. The tail is somewhat shorter than 

 the wings when shut, is handsomely forked, and consists of 

 ten broad feathers; the mouth is extremely large, and of a red- 

 dish flesh colour within; there are no bristles about the bill; 

 the tongue is very small, and attached to the inner surface of 

 the mouth. 



The female measures about nine inches in length and twenty- 

 two in breadth; differs in having no white band on the tail, but 

 has the spot of white on the' wing; wants the triangular spot of 

 white on the throat, instead of which there is a dully defined 

 mark of a reddish cream colour; the wings are nearly black, all 

 the quills being slightly tipt with white; the tail is as in the 

 male, and minutely tipt with white; all the scapulars and whole 

 upper parts are powdered with a much lighter gray. 



There is no description of the present species in Turton's 

 translation of Linnaeus. The characters of the genus given in 

 the same work are also in this case incorrect, viz. "mouth fur- 

 nished with a series of bristles tail not forked," the Night- 

 hawk having nothing of the former, and its tail being largely 

 forked. 



