NIGHT HAWKS AND WHIP-POOR-WILLS. 



39 



entirely absent in the night hawk. Further, the tail of the former 

 is very much rounded, with its four middle feathers like those of 

 the back, the three outer ones, on either side, having their termi- 

 nal halves white. In the night hawk the last-mentioned portions 

 are black, and the form of the tail is very different. Our night 

 hawk also has a distinctive white patch on the outer aspect of 

 each wing, which is not present in the whip-poor-will. Again, 

 the habits of these two birds are by no means similar. The whip- 

 poor-will, with rare exceptions and under certain circumstances, 

 is active and feeding from dark until daylight, and sleeps on the 



FIG. 1. THE NIGHT HAWK (C. virginianus), $ . Drawn by the author and much reduced. 



ground in the forest all day, the very reverse of this being the 

 case with the night hawk. In some localities the latter is known 

 by the name of the " bull bat," the first word undoubtedly having 

 reference to the booming noise it emits during its plunging freaks 

 through the air, in which it indulges while out .abroad for food. 

 Audubon and Wilson disagreed on the score as to how this noise 

 was produced by the bird, the former claiming that it was per- 

 formed by the wings, and the latter that it was " doubtless pro- 

 duced by the sudden expansion of his capacious mouth." lam 

 inclined to the opinion of Audubon in this matter. 



Among our native-born Americans I have never heard the 

 name of goatsucker applied to our whip-poor-will, whereas that 

 is a very common appellation for the species in many parts of 

 Europe, where still all manner of crimes are accredited to this 

 very harmless bird that is, to its European congener. It is now, 

 of course, an old story that long, long ago the goatherds of Italy 

 and Greece, observing those birds at dusk flying around the 



