6 
CAPRIMULGUS AMERICANUS. 
and back, very deep brown, powdered with cream, rust, 
and bright ferruginous, and marked with long ragged 
streaks of black ; scapulars, broadly spotted with deep 
black, bordered with cream, and interspersed with 
whitish ; the plumage of that part of the neck which 
falls over the back, is long, something like that of a 
cock, and streaked with yellowdsh brown ; wing quills, 
barred with black and bright rust; tail, rounded, 
extending about an inch beyond the tips of the wings ; 
it consists of ten feathers, the four middle ones are pow- 
dered with various tints of ferruginous, and elegantly 
marked with fine zig-zag lines, and large herring-bone 
figures of black; exterior edges of the three outer 
feathers, barred like the wdngs ; their interior vanes, 
for two-thirds of their length, are pure snow y w r hite, 
marbled w ith black, and ferruginous at the base ; this 
white spreads over the greater part of the three outer 
feathers near their tips ; across the throat is a slight band 
or mark of whitish ; breast, black, powdered with rust ; 
belly and vent, lighter ; legs, feathered before nearly to 
the feet, w r hich are of a dirty purplish flesh colour ; 
inner side of the middle claw, deeply pectinated. 
The female differs chiefly in wanting the pure white 
on the three exterior tail feathers, these being more of 
a browmisli cast. 
67 . CAPRIMULGUS AMERICANUS, WILSON. — NIGHT HAWK. 
WILSON, PLATE XL. FIG. I. MALE. — FIG. II. FEMALE. 
This bird, in Virginia and some of the southern dis- 
tricts, is called a bat ; the name night hawk is usually 
given it in the middle and northern States, probably on 
account of its appearance wdien on wing very much 
resembling some of our small hawks, and from its habit 
of flying chiefly in the evening. Though it is a bird 
universally know r n in the United States, and inhabits 
North America, in summer, from Florida to Hudson’s 
Bay, yet its history has been involved in considerable 
obscurity by foreign winters, as w^ell as by some of our 
