CHAPTER IX 



THE REARING OF THE NIGHT HAWK 



IN crossing a clearing one day in June I flushed a Night Hawk, 

 who showed by her behavior that the little depression from 

 which she rose contained something of great interest to both 



Fig. 76. Night Hawk and eggshells from which it emerged. Three days old, 

 June 27, 1900. 



the bird and myself. She was indeed incubating a single 

 marbled gray egg, which lay on a marbled gray patch of earth 

 still covered with ashes and cinder. The bird retired quietly, 

 dropping with a thud to the ground a few feet away. 



Two days later, if my estimate is correct, a young Night 

 Hawk cracked his shell neatly in two and emerged to the light 

 of day. When first seen on the twenty-sixth of June he was 

 well clothed in down, and looked like a little flattened ball of 



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