394 RELATIONS OF BIRDS TO AGRICULTURE 



This song, quite forceful and penetrating, is heard in the first part 

 of the night and again just before dawn. In coloration the bird 

 harmonizes closely with the wood colors. When flushed, it dis- 

 appears with absolutely noiseless flight. 



The whippoorwill's eggs, two in number, are laid on the ground 

 or on a log or stump in the woods, protected by no nest. 



The Night Hawk, on the other hand (Fig. 388), is markedly a 

 bird of the open. It is frequently seen in flight in the afternoon 

 and early in the evening, high in the air, uttering at frequent 

 intervals its rather harsh cry. Occasionally, on half-closed wings, 

 it darts down to the earth with a booming sound, made, it is 

 claimed, by the rush of air through his long wing feathers. 



Flo. 387. Whippoorwill. (After Fuertes.) 



The two eggs of the night hawk are laid on the ground or in 

 the fields, or even on a flat rock, with no semblance of a nest. 

 Occasionally they are found on flat roofs of buildings in cities. 



The Belted Kingfisher is naturally a lover of wood-bordered 

 streams and ponds. The noisy rattle of this bird is a fit accom- 

 paniment to the sound of running water, and it is here that it 

 takes frequent toll of fish which might otherwise have lived to 

 fill the angler's creel. Fish in ponds and streams, therefore, suffer 

 as a result of its rapacious appetite, but its depredations become 

 of marked importance when it habitually takes its food from ponds 

 or streams of those who raise trout on a commercial scale. Fre- 

 quently the shotgun is used by the fish breeder in defense of his 

 fish. Or, taking advantage of the bird's habit of frequenting a 



