564 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
Table showing the number and kinds of insects eaten by the Goatsuckers. 
Number and Name op Speci¬ 
mens Examined. 
Classification 
OF Food. 
Ratios Represented by Lines. 
2 
T3 
10 
Moths. 
Of two ^Vliippoorwills 
2 
14 
Beetles. 
examined. 
2 
- 4-3 
a 
24* 
Adult forms. 
1 
O 
102 
Insect eggs '. 
1 
3 
Moths. 
3 
19 
Heteroptera. 
iBHBBSbMMdU 
qIBV «;^^SSS9i 
2 
23 
Of five Night-hawks 
examined. 
1 
3 
-M 
5 
Grasshoppers. 
Effii 
2 
d 
o 
O 
4 
Neuroptera. 
flGD 
5 
94 
Adult forms. 
1 ^ 
137. Antrostomus vociferus (Wils.), Bp. WHIPPOORWILL; NIGHT¬ 
JAR. Group 1. Class a. 
This very useful nocturnal bird is a common summer resident, but its breed¬ 
ing liabits and its fondness for secluded retreats during the day appear to pre¬ 
clude it from maintaining abundant numbers in thickly settled districts. 
Food; Its food, as indicated by two specimens, apj)ears to consist largely of 
moths, some of wliich have an extent of wing of two inches. It also eats many 
beetles, among which are click-beetles and small lamellicorns. 
Large moths, ants, grasshoppers, and such insects as frequent old logs (Wil¬ 
son). Exclusively winged insects (De Kay). Almost entirely nocturnal lepi- 
doptera (Samuels). Ants, large moths and beetles (Audubon). 
138. Chordeiles popetue (V.), Bd. NIGHT-HAAVK; BULL-BAT. 
Group I. Class b. 
The Night-hawk, by many supposed to be the Whippoorwill, seems gradually 
growing less numerous. Where, twenty years ago, it was common to see 
thousands of these birds towards sunset, j)ursuing insects low over clover-fields 
in swift and tangled curves, now it is rare to see more than twenty thus engaged. 
At Ithaca, N. Y., both it and the Whippoorwill are uncommon birds. Dr. 
Bi’ewer, however, states that it is becoming more numerous about the larger 
Eastern cities, and that in Boston it has taken to breeding on the flat Mansard 
roofs of buildings. It is exceedingly destructive to insects, and is especially act¬ 
ive during cloudy weather and in the morning and evening twilights. It is very 
desirable that it should maintain an ample abundance. This is the more desirable 
since it frequents, so much, cultivated fields. The sportsmen of some of our cities 
are in the habit of going outside of the city limits toward sunset, and practicing 
shooting these birds on the wing, preparatory to duck-shooting in the fall. The 
services of these birds are too valuable to justify such a practice. 
> Scale only one-thii-d. 
