- Nest:
- A ground hollow like the last species.
- Eggs:
- 2, of variable shades of gray latticed with olive.
- Range:
- Northern and eastern North America, east of the Great Plains.
Another bird of the twilight, feeding bat-like upon the insects obtained in the air. It is most conspicuous in the late afternoon, though it flies also by day, and may be distinguished from the Whip-poor-will, which it closely resembles, by the large white wing spots. After dark its cry will easily identify the Nighthawk, for, instead of the distinet syllables of the Whip-poor-will, it gives a peculiar harsh whistling note, while on the wing, which is followed every few minutes by a vibrating sound, as if a fully charged telegraph wire was struck with a bit of metal; or, as Nuttall describes it, "a hollow whirr, like the rapid turning of a spinning wheel, or a strong blowing into the bung-hole of an empty hogshead, which is supposed to be produced by the action of air in the open Houth of the bird." In the latter conjecture he was wrong, as the jarring sound, which gave the bird the name of Night-jar, is now conceded to come from its habit of dropping suddenly through the air, thus making a sort of stringed instrument of its pinions.
The Nighthawk has the Whip-poor-will's habit of laying its eggs on a bare surface, only it chooses open fields and waste pastures, or even flat roofs of eity houses, instead of the woods. The term Hawk, as applied to it, is an entire misnomer; it is in no sense a bird of prey, and subsists entirely on insects, and the stories told of its chicken-killing propensities are wholly unfounded. In early autumn, prior to the migration, the Nighthawks gather in enormous flocks and fly about the entire afternoon, when they may be distinctly seen.
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