NIGHT-HAWK, Chardeiles Virginianus, a bird of the goatsucker family (eap•imulgidce) very common in America, from the Arctic islands to the West Indies. It is a bird of passage, visiting the north in summer. It is about nine inches in length, and 23 inches in expanse of wing. The gape is destitute of bristles. The tail is slightly forked. The general color is brown, but it is much mottled and marked with white; and there is a white mark on the throat, in shape like the letter V. The night-hawk is seen pursuing its insect prey in the air, chiefly before sunset, and before dawn, and attracts attention by its rapid repetition of a sharp impatient cry, which has gained for it the name Piram idly. It produces also in its flight a remarkable hollow booming sound, " like blowing into the bung-hole of a barrel," in the moments of its perpendicular descent through the air. Its movements in the air are extremely beautiful and rapid. When fat and plump, as it usually is on its southward migration, it is esteemed for the table, and great num bers are shot NIGHT HERON,..N,Weicbrax, a genus of af•deklw (See IIERox), intermediate in form between bitterns and heron's, but with shorter and thicker bill than either, and legs shorter than in herons. The COMMON Night Heron Gardeni or Europoeus) is found
in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, chiefly in the warmer temperate regions. It is most abundant in America, and is partly a bird of passage. It is a very rare visit ant of Britain. Its length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the short tail, is fully two feet. It weighs nearly two pounds. Its plumage is soft, the general color ash-gray, passing into black on the neck and head, and into white on the breast and belly. The back of the head is adorned with three very long white feathers, which hang down on the neck. The nests are built in trees, and iu general many together, forming a heronry. The night heron feeds chiefly by twilight or at night; and is never seen standing motion less. like herons, but walks about in search of prey, by the sides of ditches, ponds. etc.; its food consisting chiefly of fishes, frogs, and other aquatic animals. Its cry is very loud and hoarse.—Other species of night heron are found in Africa and Australia.