City Nighthawks 



11 



'QUEER LITTLE GRAY FUZZY CHICKS" 



Many an evening in June I 



have searched the house-tops of the 



block where I live in New York in 



an attempt to find a Nighthawk's 



nest; or have watched until dark, 



hoping to follow one of the birds 



to its home roof, but I have 



always been unsuccessful. All I 



have seen were fascinating exhibi- 

 tions of the Nighthawk's strange 



idiosyncrasies of flight — the erratic 



flaps and pauses, the bat -like 



waverings, and the rushing, roaring 



descents that well give the bird its 



colloquial name of 'Bull-bat.' And 



at night I would awake to hear, 



through the open window, the 



grating '^beedz," "beedz,^' carried 



from the starlit sky, as though taunting me. 



I was therefore delighted when, on July 20, 1906, a telephone call at my 



ofl&ce informed me of the discovery of a Nighthawk's nest on a roof in Brooklyn. 



With rare discrimination, the bird had selected the home of Dr. Wm. C. 



Braislin, a well-known ornithologist and member of the A.O. U.! Emerging 



from his front door, he 



had seen the neatly 

 chipped half of a Night- 

 hawk's egg lying upon 

 the doorstep, which told 

 him quite plainly that a 

 pair of twins had been 

 born in the sky-parlor 

 — with the resultant 

 hurry call for the bird 

 photographer. 



At the close of the 

 business day, I snatched 

 my camera and hast- 

 ened to Dr. Braislin's 

 home. It was about 6 

 P.M., as we mounted 

 the ladder leading to 

 the roof. Silently we 

 "SHE TRAILED HER WINGS PITIFULLY" raised the hatch and 



