BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



eggs on gravel roofs in cities for at least forty years 

 and probably longer." 



Young: Dr. F. H. Herrick tells us that the nestlings are 

 "clothed in down" and "look like two little flattened 

 balls of fluffy worsted of a dark cream-color mottled 

 with brown." 



Hange: Eastern and central North America. Breeds from 

 Manitoba, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, and 

 Nova Scotia south to northern Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 and Georgia, and from eastern North Dakota, Ne- 

 braska, and Kansas eastward; winters from the low- 

 lands of South Carolina and southern parts of the 

 Gulf States to British Honduras and Salvador. 



THE nighthav^k is a remarkable bird. Because of 

 its nocturnal habits, it has been regarded writh 

 superstitious awe. Erroneous ideas of it have been en- 

 tertained, and it has received a name that belies it. It 

 is not a hawk at all; it preys only on insects, not on 

 chickens or small rodents. 



Mr. W. L. McAtee writes: "Nighthawks are so expert 

 in flight that no insects can escape them. They sweep up 

 in their capacious mouths everything from the largest 

 moths and dragon flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and 

 in this way sometimes gather most remarkable collec- 

 tions of insects. Several stomachs have contained fifty 

 or more different kinds, and the numbers of individuals 

 may run into the thousands. Nearly a fourth of the 

 bird's total food consists of ants." * Professor Beal es- 

 timated that the stomachs of eighty-seven nighthawks which 

 he examined "contained not less than twenty thousand 

 ants, and these were not half of the insect contents." ^ 



1 Farmers' Bulletin 755, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



2 Farmers' Bulletin 630, Biological Survey. 



[188] 



