The Night Hawk 183 



der; upper part of body greenish black and slightly mottled 

 with streaks of pale cream color interspersed with specks of 

 reddish ; wing coverts varied with grayish, and the scapulars 

 with yellowish rufous ; primaries brown, the five outer ones 

 marked about midway with a white spot ; tail, long, broad, 

 forked and barred with white and deep brownish black for an 

 inch and a half from the tip, where it is crossed broadly with a 

 band of white, the middle feathers excepted, they being of a 

 deep brown color, barred and sprinkled with light clay; a white 

 V shaped mark on the breast; other under parts with trans- 

 verse bars of white, blackish and pale tawny; plumage soft 

 and blended ; legs, short, feathered a little below the knees, 

 and, as well as the toes, of a purplish color, seamed with white ; 

 the middle claw is pectinated on its inner edge, to, as Wilson 

 says, serve as a comb to clear the bodies of vermin. In flight 

 the white markings of the bird are very conspicuous. In ap- 

 pearance the female is like the male, except that she has not 

 the white patch on the tail, and that of the throat is mixed with 

 reddish. 



The nighthawk is a migrant, that comes north in May and 

 returns south in September and October. Its range extends 

 through Eastern North America, north in the Dominion of 

 Canada to 59 degrees north latitude ; thence in a northwesterly 

 direction to Mackenzie River Valley to 65 degrees north lati- 

 tude ; west in the United States to the eastern border of the 

 Great Plains and sporadically along the southern boundary of 

 the Dominion of Canada and the northern districts to southern 

 British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern Califor- 

 nia; and thence south in winter to the Bahama Islands, Cen- 

 tral America, and the greater part of South America. Mr. 

 Cooke in his bulletin says : "Of the land birds, the common 

 eastern nighthawk seems to deserve first place among those 

 whose winter homes are widely distant from their breeding 

 grounds. Alaska and Patagonia, separated by 115 degrees of 

 latitude, are the extremes of the summer and winter homes of 

 the bird ; and each spring many a nighthawk travels the 5,000 

 miles that lie between." 



It breeds throughout its northern range. In the more 

 southern part of it, usually it nests in the first half of May but 



