246 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



The Bird of Twilight 



HO has not associated his boyhood days 

 with the bird of twilight! Sailing here 

 or abruptly tumbling In the air, the 

 strange-winged form appears as a seeming spectre before our 

 eyes. In the fall of the year we are forewarned of the first 

 mysterious flight of the night hawk by the straggling advanced 

 sentinel's rasping ze-e-e-e-t, as the sound comes in at the open 

 window. The popular name of night hawk given to this twilight 

 visitor is a misnomer. No bird with which we are familiar 

 is farther removed from the hawk group. Then, too, the name 

 bull-bat, which some of the Southern boys would have us call 

 him, is fully as misleading. For the reasons I have stated 

 I have christened him the bird of twilight. 



On the long route of migration, insects are gracefully eaten 

 in mid-air by this bird. They are swept into the cavernous 

 bewhiskered mouth during the flight. Frequent stops by day 

 are made in the open woods, but a practised eye is necessary 

 to detect their resting spots. I recall, -s^hen once making an 

 excursion into the woods, noticing what appeared to be an 



