TEXAS NIGHTHAWK 247 



ten feet, but after being once disturbed she would not return as long as any 

 person or suspicious object remained anywhere in the vicinity. The other 

 parent, if present in the neighborhood, showed no interest in the family affairs. 



In the Fresno district, according to John G. Tyler (1913), the 

 great majority of the Texas nighthawks nest in the vineyards; four 

 of the five nests observed by him were in vineyards, either at the 

 base of a vine or on bare ground between the vines; the fifth was 

 "on soft ground at base of a sunflower growing in a field of melons." 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that "at Brownsville, Texas, hundreds of 

 Texas Nighthawks are said to be found in the city nearly throughout 

 the year nesting on the flat roofs of the adobe houses." 



Eggs. — I cannot do better than to quote Bendire's (1895) descrip- 

 tion of the eggs, as follows : 



They are exceedingly difficult to detect on account of their similarity in 

 color to their general surroundings, which usually harmonize very closely. 

 The shell is strong, close grained, and rather glossy, while in shape the eggs 

 are more variable than those of other Nighthawks, ranging from oval to 

 elliptical oval, and again to elliptical ovate. The ground color varies from 

 pale gray (a sort of clay color) to pale creamy white, with a faint pinkish tint. 

 This latter phase of coloration is rather unusual however. The whole surface 

 is minutely marbled, speckled, or rather peppered, with fine dots of different 

 shades of grays, lilac, and a few darker and coarser markings of fawn color, 

 slate, and drab. Occasionally a specimen is found which, to the naked eye, 

 appears entirely unmarked ; but on more careful examination a few dark 

 spots, mere pin points, can readily be noticed. They are much lighter colored 

 than the average eggs of our other Nighthawks, and readily distinguished 

 from these on this account, as well as from their smaller size. 



The measurements of 52 eggs in the United States National Mu- 

 seum average 27.05 by 19.53 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 29.72 by 21.08, 27.18 by 21.59, 24.89 by 19.05, and 

 25.65 by 18.29 millimeters. 



To^Ti.^.— Carroll D. Scott writes to me that one of the favorite 

 pastimes of his childhood was playing hide and seek with young 

 Texas nighthawks: "The sport on our part was to find the baby 

 birds squatting on the ground, almost invisible, and to see the 

 mother trail away, endeavoring to decoy us by the broken-wing ruse. 

 The next day we were faced with the same puzzle — Where were the 

 nestlings? For they were always somewhere else. We always 

 found them again, 20, 50, or 100 feet away. We wondered if the 

 parents carried them in their wide mouths, or shoved them over the 

 ground, inch by inch, or flew with them on their backs." 



Several other observers have noticed this same behavior; young 

 nighthawks have moved, or been moved, for greater or lesser 

 distances, either because they had been disturbed or to take advan- 

 tage of some slight shade from the hot sun. Mr. Woods (1924b) 

 found that young birds less than three days old "could open their 



