CHAPTER IX. 



THE REARING OF THE NIGHT HAWK. 



IN crossing a clearing one day in June I flushed a Night Hawk, who showed by her 

 behavior that the little depression from which she rose contained something of great 

 interest to both the bird and myself. She was indeed incubating a single marbled 

 gray egg, which lay on a marbled gray patch of earth still covered with ashes and cinder. 

 The bird retired quietly, dropping with a thud to the ground a few feet away. 



Two days later, if my estimate is correct, a young Night Hawk cracked his shell 

 neatly in two and emerged to the light of day. When first seen on the twenty-sixth of 

 June, he was well clothed in down, and looked like a little flattened ball of fluffy worsted, 



of a dark cream color mot- 

 tled with brown, colors 

 which harmonize well with 

 the usual tints of the soil. 

 You had to look a second 

 time to detect the stub of 

 a beak at the base of which 

 the large round nostrils 

 were sufficiently prominent. 

 Whenever this bird was 

 aroused from its all-day 

 slumbers the eyelids would 

 gradually open and disclose 

 a pair of large, soft, deep 

 blue eyes, the lower lids 

 showing decided angular 

 contours which became 

 more striking as the bird 

 grew. 



The mother brooded during the heat of the day or sat as if dozing beside her charge. 

 When surprised at such times she rose and with feathers erect and tail spread fluttered 

 off in a slow shambling manner as if to encourage pursuit. With her feathers raised and 

 her huge mouth wide open or the mandible vibrating up and down, with an audible snap- 

 ping sound, as if set on springs, this bird presented a curious appearance, recalling the 

 not wholly dissimilar behavior which eagles display when stirred by similar emotions. 



80 



Fig. 69. Night Hawk and eggshells from which it emerged. Three days 

 old, June 27, 1900. 



