Photographing a Nighthawk's Nest and Young 

 (Chordeiles virginianus) 



BY WILLIAM L. BAILY 



While crossing a barren field at Paoli, Pa., on June 3, 

 1900, where the serpentine rock thrusts through the soil, I 

 unexpectedly flushed a Nightha^k about ten feet in front of 

 me, exposing two gray-spotted eggs, laid on the bare, stony 

 ground, scantily dotted with sickly tufts of grass, where there 

 was little soil from which to draw nourishment. This was an 

 ideal spot for a Nighthawk's nest, on a gentle slope not far from 

 an old worm fence, inclosing a thick, low wood bordering on 

 Crum Creek, just below its main source. 



The bird fluttered noiselesslj' but a few yards, when she 

 dropped down, spreading her wings on the ground. I could 

 not get my camera ready in time to take her picture before she 

 flew onto the top rail of the neighboring fence, where again she 

 led me further awaj' just as I was about to snap the shutter. 

 Returning to the eggs, which I had some difficulty in re- 

 locating, I noticed they were placed lengthwise side by side, 

 about an inch apart, as usual. When the Nighthawk spreads 

 over them her breast bone, probably touches the ground between 

 them, and one egg is held against the flufTy side of each breast 

 by the thickly-feathered wings. 



Six days later, accompanied by Mr. Serrill, who was anxious 

 to see a pair of nighthawk's eggs, the spot was revisited, and 

 as the bird again left the nest, much as she had done before, 

 two little balls of gray down which had but an hour or two 

 before taken the place of the eggs were revealed. The shells 

 had already been removed, and the little birds were in exactly 

 the same position as were the eggs, about one inch apart, but 

 looking in opposite directions. After watching the single par- 



(22) 



