1 86 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



pose from seeing the bird on the wing. The long wings and 

 the loose, fluffy feathers, tend to give an exaggerated appear- 

 ance of size that is not real. The body is actually so small, and 

 with so little flesh on the loose skeleton, that it is about the 

 last bird one would suppose any one would kill for food. The 

 pectoral muscles which move the long wings constitute the 

 principal and only part where there is much flesh. The legs 

 are small and weak and do not appear to have much use, so 

 that the muscles which move them are reduced to a minimum. 

 In one point, however, the nighthawk's anatomy is fully de- 

 veloped ; its stomach is huge for so small a bird. In capacity 

 it fully equals, if it does not exceed, that of the common pig- 

 eon, whose body is at least twice as large. It is right here that 

 the nighthawk's usefulness appears. This enormous stomach 

 must be kept filled to supply motive power for the long wings 

 which are kept in motion so many hours. To facilitate this 

 work Nature has given the bird an immense mouth, which is 

 really more like the mouth of a turtle or a frog than of a bird. 

 The food consists of insects taken on the wing, and so greedy 

 is the bird that when food is plenty it fills its great stomach 

 almost to bursting. To ascertain the character of the food 

 taken, nearly one hundred stomachs were examined, with inter- 

 esting results. Eighty-seven of these were estimated to con- 

 tain not less than 20,000 ants alone, and this was not half of the 

 insect food." 



In September the nighthawks commence going south. At 

 this time they gather into large flocks and seem to be in train- 

 ing for their journey. Up and down Fall Creek at Buzzard's 

 Roost, I have seen hundreds of them thus getting ready, and 

 it was a beautiful sight. 



