202 Bird -Lore 



By the time I had returned to the garden one of the birds had already gone 

 back to the hunt. 



The following day I again went up, this time bringing my camera, and 

 lifting the well-cover quietly, found the female sitting on the eggs only 3 feet 

 from me. She remained perfectly motionless and after the first glimpse I did 

 not again meet her gaze until I had walked to the opposite side of the roof. 

 I then attempted to approach her, this time looking directly at her, but at 

 my first step she flew reluctantly to the next house. This time the male did 

 not concern himself with my intrusion, although he must have seen me, easily, 

 from his lofty position. Fearing to keep the bird from her eggs too long, I 

 stayed but a few minutes and did not attempt to take any photographs. On 

 my third visit, however, I was less cautious, and on approaching the bird she 

 would spread her wings and make a sound like a spitting cat. Since she gave 

 no indication this time that she would desert her eggs, I set up my camera 

 and measured off 22 inches from her beak to the lens. I obtained two very 

 sharp pictures by using a 3-second bulb exposure and a small stop. Later, I 

 tried to take some snaps of her with wings spread in defence of her eggs, but 

 these were not sharp owing to cloudy weather which made it necessary to 

 use a large stop. 



As the hatching of the eggs requires but sixteen days, my discovery must 

 have been soon after they were laid, for the young birds appeared some two 

 weeks later. I had been going up every day in order to mark the date of their 

 hatching, when my usual visits were prevented by a severe rainstorm which 

 lasted three days. The storm being over, I once more called upon my bird 

 friends, and found the female watching forlornly over a single young one, which, 

 on investigation, proved to be quite dead. I could find no trace of the other 

 young one, but it is my theory that it died first and that the parents, noting it 

 to be lifeless in contrast to the one still living, disposed of it, the remaining 

 young one even after death still attracting the female's mothering instinct. 

 Of course, this storm came at the most inopportune time, but it does seem a 

 pity that these peaceful birds do not build a nest, or at least lay their eggs in 

 some place less exposed to the elements. 



The black chips on the roof, shown in the picture, probably made the roof 

 especially attractive to the Nighthawks. No other roof in the vicinity has 

 this feature. 



