198 LAND BIRDS 



Breeding Season : April and May. 

 Nest: None ; eggs laid on the bare ground. 



Eggs; 2; clay-colored, dotted, mottled, or marbled with brown and 

 obscure lilac. Size 1.07 X 0.77. 



Mr. Grinnell says the Texan Nighthawk is a common 

 summer visitant throughout the Lower Sonoran zone, 

 and occurs as far north as Stanislaus and San Benito 

 counties. Mr. Bendire records it at San Joaquin County, 

 and Mr. Merriam found it breeding in Inyo County. 



It is the smallest of all the nighthawks found in the 

 United States. Like the other varieties, it is gregarious 

 while feeding ; it skims over the water like a swallow, 

 and scoops the tiny gnats in its wide mouth. It is said 

 not to make the peculiar booming of the Eastern night- 

 hawk, but to utter a peculiar humming sound while on 

 the wing. 



Dr. Merrill writes of it : '^ The eggs are usually de- 

 posited in exposed situations, among sparse chaparral, 

 on ground baked almost as hard as brick by the intense 

 heat of the sun. One set of eggs was placed on a small 

 piece of tin within a foot or tw^o of a frequented path. 

 The female sits close, and when flushed flies a few feet 

 and speedily returns to its eggs. They make no attempt 

 to drive an intruder away. I have ridden up to within 

 five feet of a female on her eggs, dismounted, tied my 

 horse and put my hand on the bird before she would 

 move. . . . The notes are a mewing call and a very 

 curious call that is with difficulty described. It is some- 

 what like the distant and very rapid tapping of a large 

 woodpecker, accompanied by a humming sound, and it is 



