160 THE NIGHT-HAWK. 



Nova Scotia, where they remain so late as the beginning of October, but I 

 observed none in Newfoundland, or on the shores of Labrador. In going 

 north, their appearance in the Middle States is about the first of May; but 

 they seldom reach Maine before June. 



The Night-Hawk has a firm, light, and greatly prolonged flight. In dull 

 cloudy weather, it may be seen on the wing during the whole day, and is 

 more clamorous than at any other time. The motions of its wings while 

 flying are peculiarly graceful, and the playfulness which it evinces renders 

 its flight quite interesting. The bird appears to glide through the air with 

 all imaginable ease, assisting its ascent, or supporting itself on high, by irre- 

 gular hurried flappings performed at intervals, as if it had unexpectedly fallen 

 in with its prey, pursued, and seized it. Its onward motion is then continued. 

 It moves in this manner, either upwards in circles, emitting a loud sharp 

 squeak at the beginning of each sudden start it takes, or straight downwards, 

 then to the right or left, whether high or low, as it presses onward, now 

 skimming closely over the rivers, lakes, or shores of the Atlantic, and again 

 wending its way over the forests or mountain tops. During the love season 

 its mode of flight is particularly interesting: the male may be said to court 

 his mate entirely on the wing, strutting as it were through the air, and per- 

 forming a variety of evolutions with the greatest ease and elegance, insomuch 

 that no bird with which I am acquainted can rival it in this respect. 



It frequently raises itself a hundred yards, sometimes much more, and 

 apparently in the same careless manner already mentioned, its squeaking 

 notes becoming louder and more frequent the higher it ascends; when, 

 checking its course, it at once glides obliquely downwards, with wings and 

 tail half closed, and with such rapidity that a person might easily conceive it 

 to be about to dash itself against the ground. But when close to the earth, 

 often at no greater distance than a few feet, it instantaneously stretches out 

 its wings, so as to be nearly directed downwards at right angles with the 

 body, expands its tail, and thus suddenly checks its downward career. It 

 then brushes, as it were, through the air, with inconceivable force, in a semi- 

 circular line of a few yards in extent. This is the moment when the singular 

 noise produced by this bird is heard, for the next instant it rises in an almost 

 perpendicular course, and soon begins anew this curious mode of courtship. 

 The concussion caused, at the time the bird passes the centre of its plunge, 

 by the new position of its wings, which are now brought almost instantly to 

 the wind, like the sails of a ship suddenly thrown aback, is the cause of this 

 singular noise. The female does not produce this, although she frequently 

 squeaks whilst on the wing. 



Sometimes, when several males are paying their addresses to the same 

 female, the sight of those beaux plunging through the air in different direc- 



