1611 Bible (King James) Lev. xi. 16 The owle, and the nighte-hauke, & the Cuckow. View more context for this quotation

1783 J. Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. 593 Dorr Hawk, Night Jarr, or Night Hawk.

1844 Zoologist 2 445 I had brought to me a pair of ‘night-hawks’, as goatsuckers are provincially termed in Kent.

1878 T. Hardy Return of Native III. iv. vii. 58 A night-hawk revealed his presence by whirring like the clack of a mill.

1896 G. Chanter Witch of Withyford 38 The whirring of the night-hawk a-wheeling round and round.

1950 A. W. Boyd Coward's Birds Brit. Isles (rev. ed.) 1st Ser. 279 ‘Night-hawk’ and ‘Fern-owl’ are names derived from its [sc. the nightjar's] habits.

1778 J. Carver Trav. N.-Amer. 466 The Night Hawk. This Bird is of the hawk species.

1793 W. Bentley Diary 22 Aug. (1909) II. 48 We observed a great number of the birds, called here [i.e. at Charlestown, N.H.] night hawks, playing in the air.

1812 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. V. 65 On the last week in April, the Night-Hawk commonly makes its first appearance in this part of Pennsylvania.

1851 M. Reid Scalp Hunters II. xv. 239 The night-hawk has filled his ravenous maw.

1868 J. G. Whittier Among Hills 209 We heard the night-hawk's sullen plunge.

1913 W. P. Pritchard Barn Doors & Byways 119 The naturalists tell us that the night-hawks nest on top of the Manhattan skyscrapers.

1985 G. Ehrlich Solace Open Spaces 13 Nighthawks make daredevil dives at dusk with an eerie whirring sound like a plane going down.

1857 Lady Falkland Chow-chow I. i. 21 I sink into a doze, but to be again roused by howling jackals,..by the hooting of the ‘night hawk’, (as it is called here, though it is in fact a screech owl).

1871 C. L. Money Knocking about in N.Z. 44 I struck up [a song]..electrifying the moreporks or ‘night-hawks’ in the neighbourhood.

1872 A. Domett Ranolf & Amohia xi. iv Two loud harsh notes assail her ear, The night-hawk's.

1800 C. Smith Wild Youth ii. xiii. 53 Fred. Ah! poor me! what shall I do! I dare not go from here, he will murder me! Piff. Yes, you hawk! that I will! you crows' face! you night-hawk!

1817 W. Scott Rob Roy III. ii. 37 There are night-hawks abroad, so that I cannot give you..the meeting..whilk was my purpose.

1893 Pall Mall Gaz. 3 Jan. 2/2 When Jack steps ashore with money in his pocket he is..the victim of the crimp and the night-hawk.

1915 Dial. Notes 4 209 Night-hawk, a thief or harlot. ‘Those night-hawks ought to be taken up and sent home if they don't know enough to go.’

1995 Countryman 100 51 A third of treasure-hunters are night-hawks—people equipped with sophisticated machines, and often with weapons, who raid archaeological sites and sell what they find.

1868 ‘M. Twain’ Let. 8 Jan. (1920) 80 Jack Van Nostrand, Dan and I, (all Quaker City night-hawks,) had a blow-out at Dan's house.

1885 A. E. Costello Our Police Protectors 481 McGowan..sprang into the carriage, telling the driver, a ‘nighthawk’, to go on.

1903 W. D. Coburn Rhymes from Round-up Camp (rev. ed.) 18 Cotton-Eye, the night-hawk, Was then a top cow-hand.

1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 95 Night hawks, night watchmen stewards.

1934 A. Woollcott While Rome Burns 180 Your correspondent, a nighthawk of parts in those days, was within ear-shot.

1948 Sierra Club Bull. (San Francisco) Mar. 22 Ed Thistlethwaite..was our night hawk. It was to be his job..to get up and watch the dawn in the high and relatively high pasture lands to which the stock had been pushed, then to round them up and bring them down to work.

1988 Smithsonian Stud. Amer. Art Fall 38/1 The final nighthawk is the man behind the counter, his curved body related to the twin cylinders of his metallic coffee urns.