The Birds and Poets 177 



hawk, sometimes called Bull-bat, because of his 

 bat-like, erratic movements in flight, and his noc- 

 turnal habits. 



The nighthawk passes the day in perching 

 lengthwise on a limb of a tree, after the manner 

 of the whippoorwill, and after sunset he rises high 

 in the air in search of insects. As he darts about, 

 his metallic "peet! peet!" may be distinctly heard, 

 sometimes long after the light of the closing day 

 has faded, for he is truly a nocturnal bird. 



Nests of this bird are sometimes found on the 

 roofs of buildings. I once discovered a set of two 

 eggs in a little pocket in the stone cornice of a thir- 

 teen story building in Chicago, opposite my office 

 window, which I caught sight of one morning 

 while feeding pigeons. With the consent of the 

 manager I engaged one of the window washers of 

 the building to scale the cornice for me and secure 

 the eggs, which were easily identified as the night- 

 hawk's. The eggs were returned to their niche but 

 evidently they had been deserted, for no birds 

 appeared near them, and after a few days one of 

 the eggs disappeared, and later the other one was 

 missing. 



The subject of bird migration is one of never 

 failing interest. Much has been and could still be 

 written about it, and yet the wonderful faculty of 

 these little animals to find their way about through 

 the air for such tremendous distances, is still very 

 largely a mystery. The birds seem to have an 

 exaggerated or highly developed sense of direction. 



