166 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



slight depression about the eggs may result from the presence of the 

 parent there during incubation ; for concealment it relies solely on the 

 soft colors of the fallen leaves and the flickering light of the woodland. 



It is rare to find the eggs laid in a more open situation. 



Lewis McI. Terrill, in a letter to Mr. Bent, gives in detail the results 

 of remarkably close observations on the home life of a pair of whip- 

 poorwills and their brood. His observations were made near St. 

 Lambert, Quebec, in 1933. 



On May 14 Mr. Terrill came upon a pair of whippoorwills in a 

 patch of deciduous trees, mainly young maple and birch. A week 

 later he flushed the female "from a single egg lying on a bed of old 

 leaves in a small glade" near the spot where he first saw the birds. 

 "There was no depression whatever, and the egg appeared as if it 

 had been casually dropped there." The second egg was not laid 

 until the 23d, indicating "that egg deposition takes place on alternate 

 days." 



Invariably at his subsequent visits Mr. Terrill found the female 

 incubating or brooding, but while the young birds remained in the 

 vicinity of the nest he saw the male near it only once (June 20). 



He says : "The male spent the day in a thicket over 400 yards away. 

 I usually heard him singing from this direction in the early part of 

 the evening; later he sang from a point nearer the nest; and finally 

 from its immediate vicinity. I gather from this that he visited his 

 family regularly at night. 



"On May 27 the eggs were resting in a noticeable depression made 

 by the pressure of the bird's body. One might almost call it a nest 

 although no extraneous nesting material whatever had been added. 

 The female was very consistent in her behavior, usually leaving the 

 eggs when I was 10-15 feet away and flying to a dead branch 2 feet 

 from the ground where she uttered a few protesting chucks, which 

 resembled a call of the catbird and to a lesser extent the chuck of the 

 hermit thrush. 



"On the occasion of the male's visit (June 20) both birds were 

 very worried, and their calls, especially that of the male, resembled 

 the whip note of his song, although much subdued. He sometimes 

 called whip-will when excited by the distress calls of the young. 



"When returning to the nest the female frequently hovered before 

 alighting, often dropping to the ground a few feet from the nest. 

 Even at that short distance she would not attempt to walk onto the 

 eggs, but would fly up again, hover, and then alight directly on the 

 nest. 



"The nighthawk, we may note, progresses differently. To be sure, 

 it occasionally flies short distances when approaching the nest, but the 

 final approach is by walking, or perhaps I should say creeping in a 



