The Nighthawk in Connecticut 

 I 



By LEWIS F. HALL, Bridgeport, Conn. 



I HAVE read of Nighthawks laying their eggs on the gravel roofs of build- 

 ings in the heart of cities, but never before this summer has it been my 



good fortune to see them nesting, or to obtain a good photograph of the 

 female on the eggs. 



On June 14, 19 13, 1 learned that a Nighthawk had laid two eggs on the tar- 

 and-gravel roof of the Southern New England Telephone Go's, building at 184 

 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, Conn. This is a three-story building in the heart 

 of the business section. Being anxious to photograph the bird, I at once paid 

 a visit to the Telephone Office and obtained permission to go up on the roof. 

 This I did by means of the fire-escape, and there, beside two bricks which were 

 lying on the roof, sat the female Nighthawk, her color matching perfectly 

 that of the tar and gravel. 



After flushing the bird and finding only one egg, I learned that the other 

 had been broken by the bird in removing it with her wing from under a peach- 

 basket which had been placed on edge over the eggs by employees of the 

 Telephone Co., in an endeavor to capture the bird. 



I then set up my camera eighteen inches from the egg and, after photo- 

 graphing it, I concealed myself behind a skylight and waited for the return 

 of the bird. She soon flew from a neighboring building, alighted on the roof 

 about twenty feet from the egg and, after spending about fifteen minutes care- 

 fully scrutinizing the camera, which was covered with black cloth, returned 

 to the nest. 



I then crept out on my hands and knees and succeeded in pressing the 

 bulb, which was only about one foot in back of the camera. I repeated this 

 operation several times, taking, in all, two pictures of the egg and four of the 

 bird. The last three photographs of the bird were all taken within fifteen 

 minutes' time, the bird, which had then become used to the camera, returning 

 to the nest each time almost immediately after I had hidden behind the 

 skylight. During the time the last three photos were taken, the bird did not 

 once leave the roof, but merely flew upon the coping about twenty feet from 

 the egg, wh e I changed the plates in preparation for the next picture. 



II 



By WILBUR I. SMITH, South Norwalk, Conn. 



ONE of my earliest memories is of my grandfather taking me out into 

 one of his meadows and showing me a Nighthawk sitting on her 

 eggs, laid on a bare rock. 

 The bird allowed us to approach quite near, when grandfather told me to 

 ^'pick her up," but the bird went fluttering off with all the manifestations of 



(173) 



