THE NIGHT-HAWK 67 



fragment from a mosaic* The white spot on a Night- 

 hawk's wing runs through feather after feather, 

 but comes out in a strikingly regular pattern that 

 shows when he is high in the evening air to best 

 advantage. 



This bird has a mouth that may be called ridiculous, 

 and his little, insignificant beak is but the handle to it. 

 When darting at insects he opens his mouth and 

 conceals himself behind it. Truly it is a mouth to 

 wonder at. If you undertake to open the diminutive 

 beak you will fancy that the bird has been cut in two 

 horizontally. The Eel Fly or Mosquito which sees 

 that mouth approaching never lives to hum the talc. 

 It may be that the Night-hawk is ashamed of the 

 cavernous receptacle with which he has been endowed, 

 for he feeds at higher levels during early evening, 

 and does not descend till night draws her sheltering 

 mantle about his hideous disfigurement. Late into 

 the night, and even till daylight, he continues to 

 blow his whistle among the chimney -tops and 

 telephone poles, sometimes startling the electric- 

 lighted street with the giant shadows of his flapping 

 wings ; or chasing a beetle over the heads of some 

 eager crowd, reminding them of eager pursuits other 

 than their own. 



The whistle is his chief recreation, and it often 

 cheers the belated city straggler ; but he has another 

 game as solitary as golf, though far more animated. 



