Nighthawk Notes 



115 



turned away from the trunk made it look, even through a good pair of field- 

 glasses, like a knot, and I found it hard to persuade my wife that it was not 

 one. I suppose it sat with its tail towards the tree trunk because it was 

 more comfortable to have its head up hill than down. 



Soon after this we had a week of almost continuous rain, and I saw no 

 more birds until the weather cleared, when the Nighthawks were every- 

 where flying in the bright sunshine. 



NIGHTHAWK WAITING NEAR NEST 



June 10, I saw one sitting. My neighbor's daughter had found the 

 nest two days before. As I am a teacher of mathematics, I was pleased 

 to think that this bird had a mathematical turn of mind, for the eggs were 

 laid almost in the center of an equilateral triangle made of small pine 

 branches that happened to lie across each other. There was no real nest, 

 only a slight depression from which the twigs had been removed. 



I am not a 'camera fiend,' but I wanted pictures of the eggs and 

 bird. Two of my friends are successful amateurs, and I induced them to 

 furnish the necessary camera, patience and skill. At first we focused at a 

 distance of twelve or fifteen feet, then gradually worked up to five feet 



