AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 217 



walking quietly along by the rose bushes when we heard an angry little 

 chip. Looking closely we saw Mrs. Sparrow fly to the peach tree. At 

 first we wondered what made her so angry for we were not near her 

 nest. Then I noticed how wet she was. It seems that we had inter- 

 rupted My Lady at her bath and she was telling us how rude we were. 

 I wanted to see if she would come back, so we went on a little farther 

 and kept quiet. In a few minuted she did come back and finished her 

 bath in peace. Hark! Oh that is a Kingbird. He is perched on a wire 

 that is stretched about ten or twelve feet above the ground, between 

 the maple and the wild cherry. If you watch closely you will see that 

 he is continually folding and unfolding his wings, turning his head from 

 side to side and at the same time keeping up a continual chirping in a 

 very noisy and restless manner. Watch, for he means to take a bath 

 in that pan. He looks down and with a graceful swoop flies down to 

 the pan, through the water, out at the other side, and with the same 

 graceful curve rises until he can alight on the shed roof or maple. He 

 never alights on the pan except to drink, but repeatedly flies through 

 the water until he is as wet as the other birds are with all their splash- 

 ing. I never tired of watching him, his ways were so different from 

 the others. In the latter part of the summer I was out one morning 

 when a heavy dew had fallen, and noticed a pair of birds flying so close 

 to the tips of the branches of the dew laden trees that the tiny drops 

 fell off in showers. Beautiful birds they were, but I do not know their 

 names, although I have watched them nearly all summer. 



A NOTE ON THE NIGHT HAWK. 



Maude L. Miller. 



While looking for a nest of the Night Hawk one bright sunny morn- 

 ing, I was suddenly startled by a bellowing noise directly overhead. 

 Jumping to one side and glancing up, I beheld a male bird rising in 

 the air. I stood where I was watching the bird fly about, uttering his 

 rasping-like call; after getting well up in the air, he suddenly paused 

 and came soaring toward me like an arrow. About fifty feet in front 

 of me his wings were lowered below his body, throwing them forward 

 with the flight feathers spread wide apart. After travelling this way 

 for ten feet or more, the bellowing-like noise to be heard. He would 

 then rise to repeat the performance. His speed was so great that the 

 flight feathers vibrated like a large loosely stretched rubber band when 

 snapped with the fingers. This performance was repeated in front, back 

 and beside me twelve times in all, never more than fifty feet away, and 

 as near as fifteen. In all cases the wings were in the same position, 

 and his mouth never open. 



As there is some dispute in regard to when, where, and how the 

 Night Hawk makes this noise, I offer this as a possible solution. 



J. B Canfield, Bridgeport. Conn. 



