208 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



a bare hill, with nothing but the whole heavens, the 

 broad universe above, to brood it when its mother was 

 away. 



June, 5, 1854. Now, just before sundown, a night- 

 hawk is circling, imp-like, with undulating, irregular 

 flight over the sprout-land on the Cliff Hill, with an oc- 

 casional squeak and showing the spots on his wings. He 

 does not circle away from this place, and I associate him 

 with two gray eggs somewhere on the ground beneath 

 and a mate there sitting. This squeak and occasional 

 booming is heard in the evening air, while the stillness 

 on the side of tlie village makes more distinct the in- 

 creased hum of insects. 



May 31, 1856. As I return in the dusk, many night- 

 hawks, with their great spotted wings, are circling low 

 over the river, as the swallows were when I went out. 

 They skim within a rod of me. After dusk these greater 

 swallows come forth, and circle and play about over the 

 water like those lesser ones, or perhaps making a larger 

 circuit, also uttering a louder note. It would not be safe 

 for such great birds to fly so near and familiarly by 

 day. 



May 26, 1857. As I am going down the footpath 

 from Britton's camp to the spring, I start a pair of 

 nighthawks (they had the white on the wing) from 

 amid the dry leaves at the base of a bush, a bunch of 

 sprouts, and away they flitted in zigzag noiseless flight 

 a few rods through the sprout-land, dexterously avoid- 

 ing the twigs, uttering a faint hollow wJiat^ as if made 

 by merely closing the bill, and one alighted flat on a 

 stump. 



