BIRDS OF THE AIR. 341 
NIGHTHAWKS, WHIP-POOR-WILLS, ETC. 
Birds of this family are especially fitted for the cap- 
ture of flying insects. Their beaks are small and weak, but 
their mouths are very capacious, their gullets are large, and 
their stomachs enormous. Some species fly high over open 
country; others live mainly in the woods. Together with 
the Owls and Bats they form a night police for the control 
of nocturnal insects. 
Our two common species, the Nighthawk and the Whip- 
poor-will, are frequently confounded; but in appearance, 
habits, and color of eggs they are.so different that this mistake 
could not be made except by the most superficial observer. 
Nighthawk. Bull Bat. 
Chordetles virginianus. 
Length.— Nine to ten inches. 
Adult Male.— Above, black, gray, and tawny, mixed and mottled; wings long 
and natrow, crossed by a broad white bar which shows best in flight; tail 
slightly forked or notched, all except the two middle tail feathers crossed 
near tip with a white band; throat with a broad band of white; breast 
blackish, marked with gray; other under parts gray (sometimes tinged 
with buffy), barred with blackish. 
Adult Female. — Similar, but duller; throat band buff; no white on tail. 
Eggs.— Laid on bare ledge, rocky ground, or a gravel roof. 
Season. — May to September. 
The Nighthawk is neither a night bird nor a Hawk, un- 
less it may be called a mosquito Hawk. It flies chiefly at 
evening, but is seldom heard to cry after dark, and often 
may be seen flying about during the greater part of the 
day, sometimes at great heights. It has deposited its eggs 
on gravel roofs in cities for at least forty years, and prob- 
ably longer. It may be seen on summer afternoons hawk- 
ing for insects high over the city streets. The usual note 
is a s-k-i-r-k or s-c-a-i-p-e, a little like the call of Wilson’s 
Snipe, —rather a startling squeak when heard close at hand. 
This is the only loud note I have ever heard uttered by 
this bird, except the b00m which accompanies its sudden de- 
scent through the air, and which is supposed to be made by 
the wings. The Nighthawk is very devoted to its young, 
which, like its eggs, are so protectively colored that they are 
