MAY BIRDS. 63 



hearing a regular chorus of their weird 

 utterances at Happy Valley in Boylston. 

 These birds are viewed with much super- 

 stitious awe in some parts of the country, 

 and a whippoorwill singing from the 

 ridge-pole of a farm-house is considered 

 a most ominous event. The whippoor- 

 will builds no nest, but deposits its two 

 beautiful cream-colored eggs, which are 

 quite rare and of considerable value, in a 

 depression on the bare ground. The night- 

 hawk is almost a city bird, and its loud, 

 squeaking cry is one of the commonest 

 sounds to be heard everywhere along our 

 city streets in the early evening twilight, 

 as the bird wheels about just above the 

 roofs of the buildings in pursuit of night- 

 flying insects of all kinds. One of the 

 most remarkable things about the night- 

 hawks is the way they have changed their 

 breeding habits, in accordance with the 

 changed conditions of the country, and 

 birds which formerly laid their eggs on 

 rocky ledges in the deep woods are now 

 found depositing them on the flat tin roofs 



