NIGHT HAWK. 7 



The voice of the chimney swift is not as musical as the swallows', 

 and their twittering song, though cheerful, displays little variation, 

 is nothing more indeed than rapidly repeated titips. The species ie 

 generally distributed in summer throughout this eastern country 

 north to the fiftieth parallel, but they leave us in September foi 

 their winter resorts in the tropics. 



NIGHT HAWK. 



This is one of those unfortunate birds that have been misnamed 

 by the popular voice, because the average man is a superficial 

 observer and bases his decisions upon too slight evidence. The 

 night hawk is in no way a bird of the night. It is as strictly 

 diurnal as the robin, for example ; indeed of the two I think the 

 robin makes quite as much use of the sunless hours, for while the 

 so-called hawk may extend his period of activity further into the 

 evening, the robin is on the wing earlier in the morning. 



The night hawk preys upon small winged insects, and as these 

 remain under cover during mid-day the birds are inclined to follow 

 the example, though it is not an uncommon sight to see night 

 hawks in the air amid tlie glare of the brighest noontime. Yet 

 they do not fly in the sunlight as frequently as do their fellow fly- 

 hunters — the swallows . Both species take to their wings at times 

 out of pure sport — for the exhiliraticni of flying — but the swallows 

 have the larger supply of nervous energy and fly with less exhaustion, 

 3o indulge in sportive flight with greater frequency than do the 

 night hawks. When the sun declines westward and the winged 

 mites come out for an airing, then the night hawks are most active ; 

 but when the twilight deepens and the shadows of night fall upon 

 the land the night hawks fold their wings and take their rest like 

 other decent folk. 



And so it turns out after all that our night hawk is no lover of 

 the dark hours like those prowling ruttians, the owls, or the 

 ghowlish bats or those cadaverous students — the '''grinds" — and 

 other questionable characters who work at night and sleep in the 

 da^, but is a well behaved, sensible bird, living up to the good 



