34 PASSERES. CAPRIMULGID^E. 



seeming to draw breath. " As this song," says 

 Mr. Jesse, "is a summer incident, the naturalist 

 hears the first return of it with complacency ; 

 not from its melody, for it has none ; but from 



\ 



the pleasing association of summer ideas to which 

 it gives rise." " Instead of being noxious and mis- 

 chievous," continues this pleasing writer, "they 

 are the most harmless and useful of birds, destroy- 

 ing the great enemies of vegetation, the scarabcei 

 and plialcen&t which, though individually feeble, 

 yet are of mighty efficacy in their infinite num- 

 bers, inflicting wide devastations on the grass 

 and corn, and stripping whole groves, woods, and 

 extensive forests of their foliage at once, so as to 

 make them look as naked as in winter." " Their 



