114 
INSESSORES. 
cends, then instantly it will glide obliquely downward 
with astonishing rapidity, until within a few feet of 
the ground, when, with the quickness of thought, it 
expands its wings and tail to the utmost, thus check- 
ing its downward course, and darting off with won- 
derful swiftness for a short space, mounts again al- 
most perpendicularly. So great is the muscular power 
of its wing, that these evolutions are continued for 
hours almost without rest. 
While the Night Hawk seems to be very generally 
distributed over the territory of the United States 
lying north of Louisiana, the Whip-poor-will and 
Chuck-wills-widow are confined to much narrower 
limits, — the former not extending its migrations 
much north of New York and the southern parts of 
Maine, and the latter seldom being seen north of 
Virginia. 
By some the Whip-poor-will has been confounded 
with the Night Hawk, but the difference in their 
habits marks them as distinct species; the fact that 
the latter retires to its roosting-place just as the for- 
mer is emerging from its seclusion, may have led 
some careless observers to conclude they were the 
same. The Whip-poor-will is strictly a nocturnal 
bird, never appearing abroad by daylight except when 
forced by circumstances; but no sooner has the sun 
disappeared behind the western hills, and the shades 
of evening have closed around the thicket which 
gives it cover by day, than it bestirs itself, and peeps 
out upon the dim landscape over which the pale moon 
is casting a feeble glare. It is then that its sweet 
