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Bird - Lore 



or claws that comes along." The writer has known, and knows of a number of 

 tame deer, and in every case they met with a violent or premature death ; and 

 that, too, regardless of whether they had their liberty or were kept in an in- 

 closure. Is this not the end of every wild bird or animal? Do birds that we 

 have made pets of end their career sooner than their wilder brothers? To know 

 a bird individually gives us a great deal of pleasure, but are there not various 

 N'iew-points to be considered? 



City Nighthawks 



By CLINTON G. ABBOTT 



Photographs by the author 



T 



*HAT "Charity begins at home" 

 is admitted by all. But that 

 wild-bird photography may begin 

 at home — without even so much as 

 going outside the front door — would 

 doubtless be questioned by many. Even 

 stranger would such a proposition ap- 

 pear when "home" is in the midst of a 

 great city. Yet the proof is found in 

 the accompanying photographs, which 

 were taken upon the roof of a house in 

 one of Brooklyn's most closely built 

 sections. 



The bird which exhibits this strange 

 affinity for the city's roar and inhos- 

 pitable masonry is the Nighthawk, 

 normally a shy and retiring inhabitant 

 of barren fields and lonely wastes. 

 Whether the level monotony of city 

 roofs reminds it of the plains, whether 

 its insect food abounds in the urban 

 atmosphere, I cannot say; but the fact 

 remains that annually many of these 

 birds spend the summer in large cities, 

 where, as evening approaches, they may 

 be seen cavorting above the chimney- 

 tops and uttering their harsh cries. The 

 female lays her two mottled eggs, without the slightest pretense of nest-build- 

 ing, on a bare, flat roof — always selecting for this purpose a roof of the tar and 

 gravel variety. 



Mosr LnN\i;MKNT COIGN 

 OF OBSERVATION" 



