16*2 
NIGHT HAWK. 
Florida to Hudson’s Bay, yet its history has been involved in 
considerable obscurity by foreign writers, as well as by some 
of our own country. Of this I shall endeavour to divest it in 
the present account. 
the outer feathers. When in woods, or hawking near trees, the flight is made 
in glides among the branches, or it flutters close to the summits, and seizes the 
various Phaloence which play around them. I once observed three or four of 
these birds hawking in this manner, on the confines of a spruce fir plantation, 
and, after various evolutions, they balanced themselves for a few seconds on 
the very summit of the leading shoots. This was frequently repeated while I 
looked on. During the whole of their flight, a short snap of the bill is heard, 
and a sort of click, click, with the distinct sound of the monosyllable whip, or, 
to convey the idea better, the sound of a whip suddenly lashed without cracking. 
The female, when disturbed from her nest, flits or skims along the surface for 
a short distance ; but I have never seen the young or eggs removed in the 
manner related of the American species, even after frequent annoyance. When 
the young are approached at night, before they are perfectly fledged, the old 
birds fly in circles round, approach very near, utter incessantly their clicking 
cry, and make frequent dashes at the intruder, like a Lapwing. 
Among the Night Hawks, taking the form as understood to rank under 
Caprimulgus of Linnaeus, we have a close resemblance of general form and 
characters, though there are one or two modifications which fully entitle the 
species to separation, and which work beautifully in the system of affinities or 
gradual development of form.* From these circumstances, Mr Swainson has 
formed a new genus for our present species. 
In colour, the whole of Caprimulgus is very closely allied ; “ drest, but with 
nature’s tenderest pencil tonched,” in various shades of brown, white, and 
russet ; the delicate blending of the markings produce an effect always pleasing 
— often more so than in those which can boast of a more gorgeous apparel. 
There is another structure in this bird which has given rise to much conjec- 
ture among naturalists, particularly those whose opportunities of observation 
have been comparatively limited, and has been looked upon as a peculiarity 
existing in this genus only, — I allude to the serrature of the centre claw. This 
structure we also find in many other genera, totally different from the present 
* In some the mouth is furnished with very strong- bristles, and in others it is entirely 
destitute of them, as may be seen in the species of North America. Again, the tail is square, 
round, or forked, sometimes to an extraordinary extent, as in the C. psalurus of Azara, and in 
C. acutus the shafts of the feathers project beyond the webs, and remind us of the genus 
ChcEtura. In some the tarsus is extremely short and weak, and covered with plumes to the 
very toes, in others long and naked. The wings are rounded or sharp pointed ; and in the 
Sierra Goatsucker we have the shaft of one of the secondaries running out to the length of 
twenty inches, with the web much expanded at the extremity, and presenting no doubt during 
flight a most unique appearance. — Ed. 
