In the Wake of the Brown Thrasher 



Another bird whose annual reappearance 

 is suggested by the Swift because he is 

 equally eccentric, is the Night-hawk. He, 

 too, may be seen quite easily in summer, 

 for he feeds in very much the same way 

 and has a habit of doing it at evening also, 

 and immediately over a town or city. His 

 head bears a marked resemblance in shape, 

 particularly about the thin, wide mouth, to 

 the head of a frog, and some of his habits 

 are very odd indeed. He builds no nest 

 at all, but his two darkly-spotted, oblong 

 eggs are laid directly on the ground — usually 

 on the side of some small hill, bare of grass, 

 at the stoniest and most unprotected place 

 he can find. 



If you should discover them — and it is 

 hard to do so, because they blend with 

 their surroundings — he will occasionally 

 take them in his mouth one at a time, 

 at the first opportunity afterward, and 

 deposit them at some new point a little 

 distance away, where you will not be 

 likely to come across them again. 



The Night-hawk is nearly the size of a 



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