LAND BIRDS. 377 
more abundant; back, seapulars and wing-coverts similar, the degree of “frosting” quite 
variable, the black markings tending to become cross-shaped; primaries blackish, spotted 
and barred with rusty brown on both webs; chin and breast brownish black to sooty black, 
more or less freckled with buff, the throat with a pure white collar; sides and belly buffy 
white, finely and irregularly barred with black; middle tail-feathers like the back, the 
others blackish, spotted and imperfectly barred with rusty buff, the three outer pairs 
mostly pure or buffy white, on the terminal half. 
Adult female: Similar to male, but the white collar often buffy tinted, and the white 
cone tail much more restricted, only the tips of the three outer pairs being whitish (usually 
y). 
Length 9.50 to 10 inches; wing 5.80 to 6.70; tail 5.10 to 6.50. 
174, Nighthawk. Chordeiles virginianus virginianus (Gmelin). (420) 
Synonyms: Bull-bat, Musquito Hawk, Will-o-the-wisp.—Caprimulgus popetue Vieill. 
—Chordeiles_ popetue, Baird.—Caprimulgus_ virginianus, Gmelin, 1789.—Chordeiles 
americanus, DeKay. 
Plate XX XLX., 
The goat-sucker characteristics, plus the white wing-spots, mark this 
species. See remarks under Whippoorwill and examine plate. 
Distribution.—Northern and eastern North America, west to the Great 
Plains and central British Columbia, and from Labrador south through 
tropical America to the Argentine Republic. 
One of the best known of our summer birds and one of the latest to arrive 
from the south. It is rarely seen even in the southern counties before 
the 10th of May and frequently does not arrive until the 15th or 20th. 
Its nesting is correspondingly late and eggs are rarely found before the 
first week in June, while many are deposited late in that month or even 
early in July. Captain Bendire states that the earliest date on which he 
has known eggs to be deposited in the north was on May 27, in southern 
Michigan. He further states that as a rule only a single brood is reared 
in a season, but that a second laying occurs if the first is destroyed. He 
gives the period of incubation as sixteen days and states that both sexes 
assist. 
The eggs are laid on the bare ground, usually in an open field or on a 
bare rock, or not infrequently on the flat and gravelled roofs of buildings 
in cities and towns. We have never known the eggs to be laid in woods 
or even in the shade of a bush, but invariably in the open. In this respect 
the bird is entirely unlike the Whippoorwill, which always lays its eggs in 
the woods. The eggs, according to Ridgway, are pale olive buff, buffy 
white, grayish white, etc., thickly speckled and dashed with deep brown, 
olive, blackish, and usually with pale bluish gray. They average 1.19 
by .85 inches. In regard to the coloration of the eggs Bendire says “There 
is endless variation in the markings. Scarcely any two sets resemble 
each other closely, and I consider the egg of the Nighthawk one of the most 
difficult ones known to me to describe satisfactorily.” 
The note of the Nighthawk is a peculiar, loud, nasal call which may be 
heard at a long distance and once heard is not likely to be confounded with 
any other bird note. It is, however, very difficult to describe. Bendire 
speaks of it as “their querulous and squeaky call note sounding like eh-eek, 
wh-eek, or speek-speek,’’ Chapman, however, describes it better as “a 
loud nasal peent.’ ; 
It flies freely by day, but is rather crepuscular than diurnal or nocturnal. 
During its southward migrations it may be seen in large, loose flocks flying 
