Nighthawk 179 
America. Life without insects would be im- 
possible for him. 
When he is coursing low above the fields, 
with quick, erratic, bat-like turns, notice the 
white spots, almost forming a bar across his 
wings, for they will help you to distinguish him 
from the whip-poor-will, who carries his white 
signals on the outer feathers of his tail. Both 
of these cousins wear the same colours, only 
they put them on differently, the whip-poor-will 
having his chiefly mottled, the nighthawk his 
chiefly barred. The latter wears a broader 
white band across his throat. His mate sub- 
stitutes buff for his white decorations. 
Like the mother whip-poor-will, she makes 
no nest but places her two speckled treasures 
in some sunny spot, either on the bare ground, 
on a rock, or even on the fiat roof of a house. 
Since electric lights attract so many insects 
to the streets of towns and villages, the enter- 
prising nighthawk often forsakes the country 
to rear her children where they may enjoy the 
benefits of modem improvements. 
Both the nighthawk and the whip-poor-will 
belong to the goatsucker family. Did you ever 
hear a more ridiculous name? Eighty-five 
innocent birds of this tribe, found in most parts 
of the world, have to bear it because some care- 
less observer may have seen one of their number 
flying among a herd of goats in Europe to catch 
