NIGHT-HAWK, 
445 
each side of the neck; the bill is exceeding small, scarcely one- 
eighth of an inch in length, and of a black colour; the nostrils 
circular, and surrounded with a prominent rim; eye large and 
full, of a deep bluish black; the legs are short, feathered a little 
below the knees, and, as well as the toes, of a purplish flesh 
colour, seamed with white; the middle claw is pectinated on its 
inner edge, to serve as a comb to clear the bird of vermin; the 
whole lower parts of the body are marked with transverse lines 
of dusky and yellowish. The tail is somewhat shorter than 
the wings when shut, is handsomely forked, and consists of 
ten broad feathers; the mouth is extremely large, and of a red'< 
dish flesh colour within; there are no bristles about the bill} 
the tongue is very small, and attached to the inner surface of 
the mouth. 
The female measures about nine inches in length and twenty-^ 
two in breadth; differs in having no white band on the tail, hut 
has the spot of white on the wing; wants the triangular spot of 
white on the throat, instead of which there is a dully defined 
mark of a reddish cream colour; the wings are nearly black, all 
the quills being slightly tipt with white; the tail is as in the 
male, and minutely tipt with white; all the scapulars and whole 
upper parts are powdered with a much lighter gray. 
There is no description of the present species in Turton^s 
translation of Linnaeus, The characters of the genus given in 
the same work are also in this case incorrect, viz, mouth fur'’^ 
nished with a series of bristles^tail not forked^^^ the NighL 
hawk having nothing of the former, and its tail being largely 
forked. 
