BIRDS WITH A HANDICAP 



poorwill stays during the day in the woods and lays 

 two white eggs sparsely marked with faint lilac on the 

 dead leaves on the ground among the woodland shades ; 

 the Nighthawk, when not flying about, suns itself during 

 the day upon a rock or dusty place out in a field or 

 pasture, and lays its two darkly-marked eggs on or 

 beside a low flat rock which just crops out from the 

 ground in an open lot. In cities people sometimes flnd 

 Nighthawks' eggs on the flat tar and gravel roofs of 

 blocks of houses. 



The entire food of both these birds consists of insects, 

 and they are exceedingly useful. In the south the 

 Nighthawk is popularly known as "Bull-bat," and is 

 often called familiarly simply "Bat." It is most un- 

 fortunate that there, in some quarters, the custom has 

 arisen of shooting Nighthawks as game. They eat 

 enormous quantities of mosquitoes, gnats and flies, also 

 potato bugs, ants, and a variety of noxious insects, and 

 the same is true of the Whippoorwill. Everything 

 possible ought to be done to protect these birds. Pos- 

 sibly the name l^igliihawk is responsible for the shooting 

 of this species by ignorant persons who imagine that, 

 as they are "hawks," they must kill chickens. But 

 the poor bird is no hawk at all, rather more like a large 

 swallow, and it is decidedly a day bird, so it badly 

 needs a new name. 



The most likely way of obtaining photographs of 

 birds of this class is by first finding their nests. If we 

 should happen upon them in their ordinary haunts 



104. 



