NIGHT-HAWK, OR NIGHT-JAR. 
619 
thick bristles, the longest extending more than £ an inch beyond the 
point of the bill. Eyes bluish-black. The plumage above intricately 
variegated with black, brownish-white, and rust-color, sprinkled and 
powdered with numerous minute streaks and spots. Upper part of 
the head light brownish-grey, marked with a longitudinal stripe of 
black, with others passing out from it ; the back is darker, finely 
streaked with a lighter color. The scapulars are very light yellow- 
ish-white, variegated with a few oblique spots of black. Tail round- 
ed, of 10 feathers, the exterior 1 ^ inches shorter than the middle 
ones ; the 3 outer feathers on each side are blackish-brown for half 
their length, and from thence white to their summits ; the exterior 
one is edged with deep brown, studded with paler spots ; the 4 mid- 
dle ones are without the white at the ends, and marked with herring- 
bone figures of black and pale ochre finely powdered. Cheeks and 
sides of the head nearly of a brick-color. The wings elegantly spot- 
ted with very light and dark brown. Chin black, with small brown 
spots. A narrow semicircle of white passes across the throat ; breast 
and belly irregularly mottled and streaked with black and yellow 
ochre. Legs and feet of a light purplish flesh-color, seamed with 
white ; the former feathered before, nearly to the feet. Middle claw 
pectinated. — The female is about an inch less. 
NIGHT-HAWK, or NIGHT-JAR. 
( Caprimulgus virginianus, Briss. C. americanus , Wilson, v. p. 65. 
pi. 40. fig. 1. and 2. Phil. Museum, No. 7723, 7724.) 
Sp. Charact. — Bill without bristles ; tail forked, not extending as 
far as the tips of the wings ; primaries plain blackish, with a 
white spot. — Male , with a triangular spot on the throat, and a 
white band on the tail. 
Towards the close of April the Night-Hawk arrives in 
the Middle States, and early in May they are first seen 
near the sea-coast of Massachusetts, which at all times 
appears to be a favorite resort. In the interior of the 
continent they penetrate as far, at least, as the sources of 
the Mississippi ; they are likewise observed around the 
dreary coasts of Hudson’s Bay, and breed in the whole 
intermediate region to the more temperate and elevated 
