EASTERN NIGHTHAWK 209 



the subject of the courtship of birds careful study, stated: "The 

 rapid headlong plunges of the nighthawk may be classed as a display 

 of motion, a form of the dance. Incidentally, and perhaps accidentally 

 at first, a loud booming sound is produced by the rush of air through 

 the wing feathers. This instrumental music is now the important 

 feature, although the dance is by no means a negligible one." 



Nesting. — The nesting site, according to the procedure of a pair 

 of niglithawks studied by me at Brunswick, Maine, is chosen by 

 the female. A banded female returned to the same nesting site on 

 the graveled roof of the high school building for four successive 

 years, although the males, during at least two seasons, were different 

 individuals. 



The nighthawk is solitary in its nesting habits, though there have 

 been instances where the nests of this species have been placed very 

 near together, approaching a gregarious tendency. For example, 

 E. A. Samuels (1872) states that on "a ledge of rocks back of the 

 settlement known as Wilson's Mills, wliich seemed a favorite breed- 

 ing-place for these birds, and, in the space of every four or five 

 rods, a female was sitting on her eggs." B. H. Warren (1890) 

 writes that he has found several nighthav^'ks breeding within a few 

 yards of each other. A similar case of this kind was noted at 

 Gardner, Maine, where five pairs of birds nested in a very restricted 

 area of an old deserted dock. I am inclined to believe that the 

 existence of a good nesting site rather than a social tendency is the 

 more important factor in causing these birds to nest in proximity. 

 In general, each pair of birds has a relatively large nesting territory, 

 which is vigilantly guarded. I have never noted any marked tend- 

 ency of the birds to flock together until after the nesting season 

 prior to and during the migrations. 



The nests of the nighthawk located on the ground are found in 

 a diversity of situations as far as the surroundings are concerned. 

 It prefers gravel beaches or open barren areas of rock or soil unob- 

 structed by tall shrubbery or trees. It never builds a nest in the 

 seclusion of a forest. In regions where forests abound it nests in 

 places where vegetation is sparse or preferably where forest fires 

 have left a barren waste. C. F. Batchelder (1882) found the night- 

 hawk frequenting burnt lands in the region of the upper St. John 

 River near Fort Fairfield, Maine, and it has also been found to be 

 common in the burnt lands of the Restigouche Valley, New Bruns- 

 wick. R. W. Chaney (1910) found a nest in a burnt-over area near 

 a partly burned log in Mason County, Mich. I found three nests of 

 the nighthawk in a burnt-over area near the Biological Station, 

 Douglas Lake, northern Michigan, and C. E. Johnson (1920) saw 

 two young on a scantily moss-covered and stick-strewn rock outcrop 



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