6 
CAPRIMULGUS AMERICANUS. 
and back, very deep brown, powdered witli cream, rusk 
and bright ferruginous, and marked with long ragged 
streaks of black ; scapulars, broadly spotted with deep 
black, bordered with cream, and interspersed with 
whitish ; the plumage of that part of the neck which 
falls over the back, is long, something like that of a 
cock, and streaked with yellowish brou u ; wing quills, 
barred u-ith black and bright rust; tail, rounded, 
extending about au inch beyond the tips of the wings ; 
it consists of ten feathers, the four middle ones are pow- 
dered with various tints of ferruginous, and elegantly 
marked with fine zig-zag lines, and large herring-bone 
ligurqs of bbutk ; exterior edges of the three outer 
feathers, barred like the wings; their interior vanes, 
for two-thirds of their length, are pure snowy white, 
marbled with black, and ferruginous at the base; this 
white spreads over the greater part of the three outer 
feathers near their tips ; across the throat is a slight band 
ormai'k of whitish ; breast, bbu^k, pon dered with rust ; 
belly and vent, lighter ; legs, feathered before nearly to 
the feet, tvhich arc of a dirty purplish flesh colour ; 
inner side of the middle claw, deeply pectinated. 
The female difl'ers chiefly in wanting the pure white 
on the tbr.ee exterior tail feathers, these being more of 
a brownish cast. 
67 . CAFSJMUI,GUS A3tEBICANUS, WILSOX. NIGHT HAWK. 
W'lLSON, PLATE XL. FIG. I. MALE. FIG. II. FEMALE. 
Tins bird, in Virginia and some of the southern dis- 
tricts, is called a bat ; the name night hawk is usually 
given it in the middle and northern States, probably on 
account of its appearance when on wing very much 
resembling some of our small hawks, and from its habit 
of flying chiefly in the evening. Though it is a bird 
universally known in the United Stati's, and inhabits 
North America, in .summer, from Florida to Hudson’s 
Bay, yet its history has been involved in considerable 
obscurity by foreign W'riters, as well as by some of our 
