The Mating Antics of the Pacific Nighthawk 



271 



The birds sometimes employ all of the familiar tricks to lure the intruder 

 away from the nesting-place. In one instance the pair detached themselves 

 from the band when danger threatened, fluttering and even flying toward the 

 intruder, uttering the boom note, until the location was passed. 



The mother bird tries, of course, to get the enemy to move on or to deceive 

 him. The broken-wing trick is a common one, and closely akin to this is the 

 habit of fluttering and leading the intruder in the opposite direction from the 

 nesting-place. These antics are accompanied not only by the squeaks that 

 other birds use but also by piteous moanings and shrill cries and hisses. The 

 variety of ways with which the bird can attract attention would often make it 

 impossible to find the place where the eggs or birds are, even if they did not 

 have perfect protective coloring. 



In Big Bear Valley, Calif., July, 1921, the incident here illustrated took 

 place. When the photographer, Wright M. Pierce, discovered a Pacific Night- 

 hawk and its two half -grown young on the gravel, the bird flushed as soon as 

 he came within six feet. It lit nearby, nearly flattened on the ground, wings 

 outspread, uttering a shrill hiss. The maternal instinct militant made it come 

 toward the enemy to attract attention from the young. It fluttered and con- 

 tinued hissing when he picked up one of the young and even came close, uttering 

 another shrill note. When he released one of the young it ran toward the old 

 bird and then, as the mother seemed satisfied that she had succeeded in de- 

 ceiving, she flew across the canon and did not return for fifteen minutes. 



■ f *t^iteM£*ii 



CEDAR WAXWING FEEDING YOUNG 



Photographed by Joseph Pollak, Carman, N. Y 



