season, they plunge through the air, but the rustling sound of their wings
at this or any other time after the love season is less remarkable.
In the Middle States, about the 20th of May, the Night-Hawk, without
much care as to situation, deposits its two, almost oval, freckled eggs,
on the bare ground, or on an elevated spot in the ploughed fields, or even
on the naked rock, sometimes in barren or open places in the skirts of the
woods, never entering their depths. No nest is ever constructed, nor is
the least preparation made by scooping the ground. They never, I believe,
raise more than one brood in a season. The young are for some
time covered with a soft down, the colour of which, being a dusky brown,
greatly contributes to their safety. Should the female be disturbed during
incubation, she makes her escape, pretending lameness, fluttering
and trembling, until she feels assured that you have lost sight of her eggs
or young, after which she flies off, and does not return until you have
withdrawn, but she will suffer you to approach her, if unseen, until within
a foot or two of her eggs. During incubation, the male and female
sit alternately. After the young are tolerably grown, and require less
warmth from their parents, the latter are generally found in their immediate
neighbourhoods, quietly squatted on some fence, rail, or tree, where
they remain so very silent and motionless that it is no easy matter to discover
them.
When wounded they scramble off very awkwardly, and if taken in
the hand immediately open their mouth to its full extent repeatedly, as
if the mandibles moved on hinges worked by a spring. They also strike
with their wings in the manner of pigeons, but without any effect.
The food of the Night-Hawk consists entirely of insects, especially
those of the Coleopterous order, although they also seize on moths and
caterpillars, and are very expert at catching crickets and grasshoppers,
with which they sometimes gorge themselves, as they fly low over the
ground with great rapidity. They now and then drink whilst flying
closely over the water, in the manner of swallows.
None of these birds remain during the winter in any portion of the
United States. The Chuck-will's-widow alone have I heard, and found
far up the St John's River, in East Florida, in January. Frequently
during autumn, at New Orleans, I have known some of these birds to remain
searching for food over the meadows and river until the rainy season
had begun, and then is the time at which the sportsmen shoot many
of them down; but the very next day, if the weather was still drizzly,
NIGHT-HAWK. 277
scarcely one could be seen there. When returning from the northern
districts at a late period of the year, they pass close over the woods, and
with so much rapidity, that you can obtain only a single glimpse of them.
While at Indian Key, on the coast of Florida, I saw a pair of these
birds killed by lightning, while they were on wing, during a tremendous
thunder-storm. They fell on the sea, and after picking them up I examined
them carefully, but failed to discover the least appearance of injury
on the feathers or in the internal parts.
CAPRIMULGUS viRGiKiANUs,Xa^.Jnd. Ornith. vol. ii..p. 585.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops.
of Birds of the United States, p. 62.
CAPRIMULGUS (CHORDEILES) VIRGINIANUS, Swains, and Richards, part. i. p. 62.
NIGHT-HAWK, CAPRIMULGUS AMERICAN US, Wils. Amer. Ornith, vol. v. p. 65. pi. 40.
fig. 1. Male; fig. 2. Female—Nuttall, Manual, part. i. p. 619.
Adult Male. Plate CXLVII. Fig. 1.
Bill extremely short, feeble, opening to beyond the eyes, the mouth,
when open, appearing of enormous width ; upper mandible, in its dorsal
outline straight at first, deflected at the end, very broad at the base,
and suddenly contracted towards the tip, which is compressed and rather
obtuse; lower mandible a little recurved at the tip. Nostrils basal, oval,
prominent, covered above by a membrane. Head large, depressed. -Eyes
and ears very large. Neck short, body rather slender. Feet very short
and feeble; tarsus partly feathered, anteriorly scutellate below; fore-toes
three, connected by webs as far as the second joint, scutellate above;
claws very small, curved, compressed, acute ; that of the middle larger,
curved outwards, with the inner edge expanded and pectinate.
Plumage blended, soft, but with the feathers distinct, slightly glossed.
Upper mandible margined with short bristles. Wings very long, somewhat
falcate, narrow, the first and second quills longest, and almost
equal. Tail rather long, ample, forked, of ten broad, rounded feathers.
Bill black. Iris dark-brown. Feet purplish-brown, the claws darkbrown.
Head and upper surface in general brownish-black, mottled with
white and pale reddish-brown. Secondary quills tipped with brownishwhite.
A conspicuous white bar extending across the inner web of the
first, and the whole breadth of the second, third, fourth, and fifth primaries.
Tail-feathers barred with brownish-grey, the four outer on each
side plain brownish-black towards the end, with a white spot. Sides of