ORNITHOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES 219 



DUSKY NIGHTHAA\ K 



Caprimulgus nigrescens. Cab. 



Like other members of its family the dusky nighthawk 

 laid its one egg on the ground. It was naturally a bird of 

 the forest, where, from time to time, it flushed almost from 

 under one's feet, but it also took advantage of the work of 

 man and could be seen in the overgrown Indian clearings 

 hiding among the rank weeds that grew there. When 

 frightened from its egg it limped away like many another 

 species and crouched in a conveniently exposed spot to at- 

 tract the attention of the hunter to itself and from its home. 

 Even then the bird was hard to see, for no matter where it 

 rested, the outlines of the body melted into the siu*round- 

 ings. The egg, if anything, was still harder to detect, and 

 our experienced hunter often searched for many mnnites be- 

 fore he succeeded in locating it. Though there was no nest 

 built one could sometimes find the egg by looking for a faint 

 ring of smooth earth which had been swept clean of fine 

 debris by the movements of the sitting bird. 



A well incubated egg was discovered on April 26, near 

 a trail that led to the jungle through an old, burnt-over clear- 

 ing. Both parents were there close together, one crouching 

 on the egg and the other a few feet away. I picked up the 

 egg, examined it and placed it back in the same position, 

 with the idea of returning soon to take it. Two daj^s later 

 I visited the same spot and again flushed the two parents, 

 but at first could not find the egg though its position had 

 been marked. It seemed to have disappeared, but a pro- 

 longed search at last located two lichened pieces of wood 

 about a yard away. One proved to be the egg, the parents 

 evidently having moved it. The lichen acted as a counter 

 imitation of the markings of the shell. 



The ground color was a light pinkish buff, sparsely 

 covered with scrawled blotches of chocolate brown, which 



