482 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



SCORES OF NIGHT-HAWKS. 



These mysterious birds filled the air overhead, 

 and darted down past our ears with a loud 

 whirring noise, while they kept up a con- 

 stant repetition of their peculiar cry. Numerous 

 as were these birds at first, we only succeeded 

 in finding one egg. Nests they have none; but so 

 closely does the egg resemble lichens, dry grass, 

 or moss, that although the mother bird may rise 

 from beneath your feet, it will require careful 

 search and a sharp eye to detect the little eggs. 



Not only are the eggs themselves difficult to see, 

 but I am convinced that the night-hawk carries 

 away the eggs' with her when she is disturbed. 



I am thoroughly convinced of this from the re- 

 sult of numerous experiments. In no case did I 

 discover an egg when the bird had time to plan 

 her retreat, but whenever I sneaked up close to the 

 sitting bird and with a wild war-whoop and a 

 frantic swing of my hat rushed at her, I was certain 

 of finding an egg in the place vacated by the 

 frightened bird, but never more than one. 



In the low bushes or high grass along the edges 

 of the swamp, we found numerous nests of the 

 swamp blackbird. Meadow larks had their nest 

 upon the grass-plot in front of the lighthouse door, 

 on top of the bluff. The sandy face of the bluff 

 was perforated with innumerable burrows of the 

 industrious bank swallow. 



On every part of the island the large nest of the 



