342 THE NIGHTHAWK. 
passed up surmises to their motley companions. ‘They all agreed it was a 
W hat-is-it? and I did too; for the bird was so brown, or tawny, and showed 
so little of the distinctive white spot on the wings, that it took all the morn- 
ing to determine that it was really a young Nighthawk and not a Whip- 
poorwill. 
Both of these birds suffer somewhat from an unreasoning prejudice on 
the part of both birds and men, occasioned perhaps by their long wings. I 
have seen Robins pounce upon an unoffending Whippoorwill, and drive the 
poor bird nearly distracted; while everybody knows that the very name 
Taken near Delaware. Photo by E. L. Scott. 
NIGHTHAWK’S EGGS, IN SITU. 
“hawk,” however unreasonably applied, is enough to explode the cap on any 
self-sufficient old musket. 
These Nighthawks are perfectly harmless except to moths, midges and 
their ilk; and their uplifted wings half careened by the evening breeze, furnish 
one of the most pleasing adornments of meadow and pasture. The birds 
“quarter the air” ina bat-like flight of irregular zigzags, often pouting as 
they go, Mizard—nuzard. ‘They are not so strictly nocturnal as the Whip- 
poorwills, but put a liberal construction on “twilight,” being careful to avail 
themselves of all dark days, and, in fact, moving about at will whenever the 
sun slants fairly. During the mating season the males take great parabolic 
