A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
643 
And when his song is ended, 
And all the world grows still, 
As if but just awakened, 
Calls again the Whip-poor-will. 
Garrett Newkirk in Bird-Lore 
Nighthawk : Chordeiles virginianus. S. R. 
Night- jar 
Plate VIII Fig. 2 
Length: 9-10 inches. 
Male. Mottled black and rusty above, the breast finely barred, with a 
V-shaped white spot on throat. Wings brown and large, white 
spot extending entirely through them, being conspicuous in dight; 
white bar on tail. In the female, the white markings are either 
veiled with rusty or absent. 
Note: A skirling sound while on the wing — “ Skirk — S-k-i-rk! ” 
Season: May to October; common summer resident. 
Breeds: Gulf states to Labrador. 
& 
A most valuable insect-eating bird, with nothing of the 
Hawk about it but the name. 
A NIGHTHAWK INCIDENT 
A discussion of the specific distinctness of the Whip-poor- 
will and Nighthawk, following an address to Connecticut agri- 
culturists, some years ago, led to my receipt, in July, 1900, of 
an invitation from a gentleman who was present, to come and 
see a bird, then nesting on his farm, that he believed combined 
the characters of both the Whip-poor-will and Nighthawk ; in 
short, was the bird to which both these names applied. 
Here was an opportunity to secure a much-desired photo- 
graph, and, armed with the needed apparatus, as well as 
specimens of both the Nighthawk and Whip-poor-will, I 
boarded an early train for Stevenson, Conn., prepared to gain 
my point with bird as well as with man. 
The latter accepted the specimens as incontrovertible facts, 
and readjusted his views as to the status of the birds they 
represented, and we may therefore at once turn our attention 
to the Nighthawk, who was waiting so patiently on a bit of 
granite out in the hay fields. The sun was setting when we 
reached the flat rock on which her eggs had been laid and 
young hatched, and where she had last been seen ; but a frag- 
ment of egg-shell was the only evidence that the bare-looking 
spot had once been a bird’s home. The grass had lately been 
mowed, and there was no immediately surrounding cover in 
