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, 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 virginianus, Lath. Ind. 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 Americanus, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 65. pl. 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 dark-brown. Head and upper surface in general brownish-black, mottled with white and pale reddish-brown. Secondary quills tipped with brownish-white. 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 the head and fore-neck mottled like the back; a broad white band, in the form of the letter V reversed, on the throat and sides of the neck. The rest of the under parts greyish-white, transversely, marked with undulating bars of dark-brown; lower tail-coverts white, with a few dark bars; under wing-coverts blackish-brown, with white tips.