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PASSERES.—CAPRIMULGIDÆ.
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seeming to draw breath. "As this song," says Mr. Jesse, "is a summer incident, the naturalist hears the first return of it with complacency; not from its melody, for it has none; but from
NIGHTJAR.
the pleasing association of summer ideas to which it gives rise." "Instead of being noxious and mischievous," continues this pleasing writer, "they are the most harmless and useful of birds, destroying the great enemies of vegetation, the scarabæi and phalænæ, which, though individually feeble, yet are of mighty efficacy in their infinite numbers, inflicting wide devastations on the grass and corn, and stripping whole groves, woods, and extensive forests of their foliage at once, so as to make them look as naked as in winter." "Their
