Field Notes 105 



species seems to be a permanent resident in this (Johnson) county. 

 A number of persons living near the edge of town have reported 

 its presence at feeding stations during the past winter. 



Daytox Stoneb. 

 State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. 



CITY NESTING OF NIGHTHAWK. 



In the September Bulletin Mr. N. B. Townsend calls attention 

 to a matter that may be worth discussion. 



He theorizes that the adoption of flat roofs as a nesting ground 

 by the nighthawk is a change that is favorable to the bird, and 

 this attitude interests me considerably, because I had formed the 

 contrary opinion from a consideration of the comparative abund- 

 ance of nighthawks during the last thirty years. 



At the beginning of that period the nighthawk was a common 

 summer resident in this district, but since then it has decreased 

 steadily as the bird took up its abode in the city; and it has always 

 seemed to me that immigration was the only thing that kept up 

 the city population, and now that the bird is very rare in the coun- 

 try, with the probability of no further movement citywards, the 

 city residents are becoming much less numerous. 



It may easily be, as Mr. Townsend says, that the nighthawk nest- 

 ing on a roof is safe from all predatory creatures, but what of the 

 young after the first flight? Repeatedly I have had young night- 

 hawks brought to me, both living and dead, which had been picked 

 up on the ground in the morning, doubtless after making their first 

 flight during the previous night and coming down to spend the 

 day on the ground in accordance with M^hat might easily be sup- 

 posed to be the hereditary custom. But what chance of survival is 

 there for a young nighthawk on a city street or vacant lot? And 

 it is because of the overwhelming dangers of the ground in the 

 city that these birds have been so seriously depleted in numbers. 



Yours truly, 



W. E. Sauis^ders. 



London, Ontario. 



SPARROW HAWK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 

 Urbana, 111. 

 On January 27, 1917, while taking an examination in the Stock 

 Pavilion I was attracted by a shower of small feathers which were 

 falling into the arena. I traced the stream of feathers to its source 

 and there, on a steel girder, near the roof, sat a sparrow hawk 

 steadily plucking an English sparrow. 



The Stock Pavilion is a large building, with a tan-bark arena in 



