NIGHT-HAWKS AND WHIP-POOR-WILLS 



Family Caprimulgidae 



BY A. A. ALLEN, PH.D. 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ORNITHOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



TO try to understand every impression that is made 

 upon the senses is a sign of intelligence. The dog 

 that howls at the moon because he does not under- 

 stand it, is more intelligent than the dog that takes the 

 moon for granted. We humans know that every effect 

 should have a cause and, having sensed the effect, are 

 quick to search the cause. So insistent are we if we do 

 not discover it, that we invent one to our own satisfac- 



milk as is desired, the explanation took hold. It was too 

 dark to see the insects that the goats were disturbing, 

 but it was light enough to see that the birds were fol 7 

 lowing the goats. So, even today, the nightjars and their 

 relatives the night-hawks and whip-poor-wills, must bear 

 the family apellation of goat-suckers and bear the ill- 

 will of the non-observant world. 



Nor is it from this superstition alone that these strange 



Courtesy of "Bird Lore" 



A MODERN HOME FOR A NIGHT-HAWK 



Night-hawks have adopted the flat topped, gravel-covered roofs of our large cities as quite suited to their needs. This bird is fluttering from 

 its eggs on the roof of the Bell Telephone Building in Philadelphia. Note the white bar on the wing that distinguishes it from the whip-poor-will. 



tion. Later on when our mistake has been rectified, it 

 may cling to the world for generations as a rumor or 

 a superstition. 



A good many generations have passed since a group 

 of nightjars were disporting themselves one evening on 

 a European pasture and some one inquired what they 

 were doing. It must have been a disgruntled herdsman 

 that offered the explanation that they were sucking the 

 milk from the goats but, since goats never give as much 



but useful birds have come into disrepute. The idea of 

 a bird waiting until dark before it goes about its work is 

 enough to prejudice most minds against it, and when 

 it is also responsible for some of the most weird sounds 

 in all nature, even the most intelligent will lend a will- 

 ing ear to almost any fiction about it. When one is 

 alone in the forest and a whip-poor-will breaks the 

 silence with its strange liquid notes, one can easily un- 

 derstand how the Indians came to believe that misfor- 



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