56 
BIRDS OF DURHxVM AND VICINriY. 
on the wing. The Whip-poor-will is strict!}' nocturnal. It does most 
of its hunting along water courses and in woods, so that it is not often 
seen, although its song is familiar to everybody. It passes the day 
on or near the ground in low tangled woods, in the neighborhood of 
water. It does not fly till almost underfoot, but when flushed moves 
well out of sight before alighting. Mr. Shaw tells me that he has 
found several nests at Hampton, among rank ferns in mixed woods, 
but they sometimes deposit their eggs where there is no particular 
shelter, except trees, above them. The only attempt at a nest is a 
mere hollow, without lining. It is to be distinguished from the 
Nighthawk as far as it can be seen flying by the absence of a white 
spot on each wing; in hand its immense rictal bristles are diagnostic. 
Chordeiles virginianus. Nighthawk. 420. 
Nighthawks are crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, and frequent 
fields and pastures, rather than woodland, and roost on trees and 
fences in exposed places, so they are far better known than their more 
secretive relatives, the Whip-poor-wills. During the last week in 
August hundreds of them may be seen in loose flocks flying rather 
high toward the south, and by September i the last one is usually 
gone. Though they go considerably earlier than Whip-poor-wills 
they are sometimes first to appear in spring. xMay 9 is my earliest 
record. They feed exclusively on insects, which they capture on the 
wing. Their eggs are laid on bare earth or rock in open pasture or 
field without the semblance of a nest. When at rest on a rail or 
branch of a tree they always sit lengthways, instead of crossways, as 
other birds do. This habit may have come about when their feet, 
through disuse, grew too small and weak to hold them crossways a 
branch; but probability lies v.-ith the supposition that, being day- 
sleepers, their onh' hope of continuation lay in protective resemblance ; 
and as a result, we find them as gray as a lichen-covered log or stone, 
and accustomed to lie lengthways of whatever they rest upon, to 
appear the more like a part of the object that supports them. 
Family iMICROPODID^. 
Chsetura pelagica. Chimney Swift. 423. 
The annual residence of the Chimney Swift in this latitude lasts 
from about the first of May until the second week of September, The 
dates of its appearance for the last three years, 1898, 1899, 1900, 
were May 5, April 27, and April 30, respectively. The dates of its 
