THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



ORNITHOLOGY 



All communications for this department 

 should be sent to the Department Editor. 

 Mr. Harry G. Higbee, 13 Austin Street, 

 Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Items, articles 

 and photographs in this department not 

 otherwise credited are by the Department 

 Editor 



A Nighthawk Family. 



BY G. H. SELLECK, ExETER, NEW HAMP- 

 SHIRE. 

 Eight pairs of bright eyes, abun- 

 dance of time to wander in the fields 

 and woods, and an insatiable desire to 

 see everything that old Mother Nature 

 has to show. This is the description 

 of a family of children who lived 

 across the street from me in 1902. 

 They discovered sixty or eighty birds' 

 nests during the first half of the sea- 

 son and the varieties ranged from the 

 woodcock in early April to goldfinch 

 and waxwing in midsummer. 



Many of these bird homes were de- 

 scribed or shown to me, and among 

 the number was the nighthawk's which 

 Elsie had found on the eighth of June. 

 A day or two later she conducted me 







THE NIGHTHAWK OX HER EGGS. 



•■ALMOST TOUCHED IT WITH MY HAND." 



to the spot, and during the next month 

 1 visited the home and family — for 

 there soon was a family — several times 

 a week. 



The home site was a triangle of dead 

 pine branches about fourteen inches on 

 a side, and the ground was littered with 

 short bits of broken limbs as is likely 

 to be the case a few years after a wood 

 lot has been cut over. The bird 

 seemed to be asleep and left only when 

 we were almost upon it. 



Next in order came the inevitable 

 process of obtaining pictures of bird 

 and eggs. Two amateur photograph- 

 ers went with tne as guide and master 

 of ceremonies. We began first at a 

 distance of about twelve feet and 



