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NIGHTHAWK. ! 383 
haps the case with several of our ground-nesting birds. I have never 
found the birds in summer on a limestone or clay soil, and the localities 
in which I have mentioned their occurrence are all on an outcrop of 
sandstone. 
The name of this bird is a tolerably accurate rendering of its note, 
which is frequently and quickly uttered in the evening, both when the 
bird is on the wing in pursuit of nocturnal insects which constitute its 
food, or at rest. It is seldom seen in day time when it retires to the se- 
clusion of deep undergrowth. Its plumage is soft and blended like that 
of the owls, while the disposition of its colors resembles that of many 
nocturnal lepidoptera. 
When wounded, and capture is threatened, the Whippoorwill will 
sometimes raise and depress it feathers, throw back its head, and open- 
ing its wide mouth in a threatening manner, utter a short blowing 
sound somewhat like the hiss of a snake. This may be the note which 
some writers have mentioned as made by the bird while perching at night. 
The eggs of the Whippoorwill are two in number, about 1.25 inches in 
length by .88 in width. The ground color is white, singularly marked 
and mottled with gray and brown lines and spots. They are laid in 
a depression of the ground upon a few leaves, but no attempt is made 
toward the construction of a nest. 
GENUS CHORDEILES. Swainson. 
Bill very small, the gape with short feeble bristles. Wing very long and pointed ; ist 
primary equal to 2d; tail long, slightly forked. 
CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS (Gm.) Bp. 
ea Nighthawk. 
Caprimulgus virginianus, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog., Surv., 1838, 162.—READ, Proc. Phila. 
Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. . | 
Chordeiles popetue, KiRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, villi, 1859, 211.—WuH¥aTon, Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1860, 1861, 362; Reprint, 4; in Coues’ Birds N. W., 1874, 234. 
Chordeiles virginianus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 1875, 568 ; 
Reprint, 8.— LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11. 
Cherdeiles popetue, var. popetue, LANGDON, Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 
1879, 178; Reprint, 12. 
Nighthawk, WHEATON, Field Notes, i, 1861, 92. 
Caprimulgus virginienus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 1028. 
Caprinuelgus popetue, VIEILLOT, O. A. S., i, 1807, 56. 
Cherdeiles virginianus, BONAPARTE, List, 1888, 8. 
Chordeiles popetue, BAIRD, Birds N. A., 1858, 151. 
Chordeiles popetue var. popetue, BAIRD, ioeewee and TENTS, N. A. Birds, ii, 1874. 
Abeve mottled with black, brown, gray, and tawny, the former in excess; below from 
the breast transversly barred with blackish and white or pale fulvous; throat in the 
