Nighthawks 547 



top, without even the pretense of a nest. The eggs are usually mottled or marked 

 with grayish purple or lavender, on a white or cream-colored ground, but are 

 sometimes plain white, admirably adapting them in color to their surroundings. 

 Unless the exact spot is noted whence the sitting bird is flushed, it is almost 

 impossible to find the eggs. The colors of the birds themselves are also strongly 

 protective, especially those dwelling in arid districts, which are often of a sandy 

 hue. 



The present family, which embraces about one hundred and twenty species, 

 is widely distributed throughout the world except some of the eastern Pacific 

 islands and the Arctic and Antarctic regions, being, however, most abundantly 

 developed in tropical countries, where insect life is always plentiful. With 

 the exception of a single genus and seven species, the entire group is com- 

 prised in the subfamily Caprimulgincs, or the typical Goatsuckers, or Nightjars, 

 the members of which are distinguished by the absence of powder-down patches, 

 and in having the so-called typical foot, in which the outer toe has but four 

 joints and the claw on the middle one is curiously fringed. 



Nighthawks. Before passing to a consideration of what may be called the 

 normal or typical members of the subfamily, we may well dispose of some half 

 a dozen genera of somewhat outlying forms in which the gape is without conspicu- 

 ous bristles, the most important genus being Chordeiles, or so-called Nighthawks, 

 which to the number of about a dozen species and subspecies range throughout 

 practically the whole of North and South America and the West Indies. Approxi- 

 mately nine or ten inches in length, they are distinguished structurally by having 

 an emarginate tail and a long, narrow wing in which the outer quill is longer 

 than the next, while the plumage is mottled blackish and grayish sometimes 

 ochraceous above, and whitish or buffy, barred with dusky below, the throat 

 marked more or less conspicuously with an A-shaped patch of white or buff, 

 while the tail is banded with dusky and the wings plain dusky marked near the 

 middle of the longer quills with a large spot of white or buffy. The typical form, 

 in which the dusky markings predominate above, is the common Nighthawk 

 (C. virginianus), an abundant summer resident in suitable situations throughout 

 most of eastern North America, reaching Hudson's Bay and the valley of the 

 Mackenzie on the north, and the edge of the Great Plains and the northern 

 Pacific Coast States on the west, and wintering in middle America and eastern 

 South America. The Nighthawk, or Bullbat, as it is often called, frequents the 

 edges of forests and clearings, meadow lands along river bottoms, and cultivated 

 fields, " as well as the flat Mansard roofs in many of our larger cities, to which it is 

 undoubtedly attracted by the large amount of food readily obtainable in such 

 localities, especially about electric lights." During the heat of the day it may be 

 found resting on horizontal limbs of trees, on fence rails, flat lichen-covered 

 rocks, old logs, chimmeys, etc., always sitting lengthwise and rarely descending 

 to the ground. While it is mostly abroad on cloudy days or in early mornings 

 or evenings, it is not infrequently observed skimming about, on bright sunny 

 days, and, as Major Bendire says: "It is one of our most graceful birds on the 

 wing and its aerial evolutions are truly wonderful; one moment it may be seen 



