Notes from Field and Study 



261 



11, 



luTI 



llu- Wilt 



animals 

 sih.K.ls 

 Gulls, Petrels and Tci 

 ■welcome sij^lu to tlu' i 

 when tlu'v an' sctii 

 water, •'feed" is sure 

 the whales easy of ap] 

 from the steamer ( )r 

 first si-;hl of the Hla 

 Althoui^di the ■•(".()iiie> 

 them, iic\er came in 



ii h at times dur- 



surfiice, staining 



These minute 



)d for countless 

 .i^real llocks of 

 'The birds arc a 

 on the vessel for 



■eliii,i< above the 



be 



It 



ful and 

 IS here. 



ilors ( 

 elos" 



., Amrri,,ni Mi 

 .\'('7.' York Cilv 



oj Natural 



The Wit of a Florida Nighthawk 



During the season of i(j04, while plow- 

 ing the last furrow for the evening in a jjotato 

 patch, I saw a Nighthawk flutter olT in the 

 grass as if her wing were broken. After 

 carefully searching the place from which 

 it started, I found two eggs lying on the 

 l)are ground, their dark color making them 

 very incons|jiiuous. This last furrow came 

 ver\' near to the eggs, and it was evident 



shore, when the vessel was fifteen or 

 twenty miles at sea, she would be sur- 

 rounded by numbers of the great, brown 

 birds which followed her from dawn until 

 dark. Sometimes with slow, steady wing- 

 beats they would fly beside the harpoon- 

 gun at the bow, or, skimming just above the 

 surface of the water, alight, daintily hold 

 their wings on high and carefully fold them 

 without wetting even the tips of the feathers. 

 The birds showed no fear of the men on 

 the vessel, sometimes coming so close for 

 scraps of food that one could almost touch 

 them by leaning over the rail. 



As I was hunting whales I made but few 

 attempts to photograph this most northern 

 representative of the family, one picture 

 of which is presented herewith. — Rov C. 



that they woulfl come in the way when 

 we continued plowing the next day. Ow- 

 ing to the very dry weather, we planted 

 only a few rows each evening. 



I left the eggs undisturbed, and forgot 

 all about them and the bird until the ne.xt 

 evening, after I had already plowed past 

 the place where the eggs were the first 

 evening, when suddenly the Nighthawk 

 flew off as it had done the evening before. 

 On the ground were the two eggs. Now, 

 if this was the same bird, it had moved its 

 eggs about fifteen feet farther from the 

 plowed ground than they were when first 

 found. By watching two or three succeed- 

 ing evenings, I became convinced that 

 it was the same bird and that it had moved 

 its eggs every day about the same distance 



