The Nighthawk. 



223 



them on a naked rock, on the grass in a pas- 

 ture land, on a dry sandbar in a river, and 

 on a high rocky table land among the sage 

 brush. Not infrequently they deposit their 

 eggs on the flat roofs of city houses. 

 The eggs are so nearly the color of the 

 ground on which they rest that they are 

 not likely to be discovered except by acci- 

 dent or by the actions of the parent bird as 

 you pass near her. When the nest is dis- 

 covered, the mother tries to lure you away 

 from it by feigning to be wounded, and 

 flutters and tumbles about on the ground 

 at your feet, trembling and panting, with 

 open mouth, keeping just out of reach, un- 

 til she has led you some little distance from 

 her eggs or young. Then her flights be- 

 come a little longer, and at length she soars 

 away to be seen no more until you have left 

 the neighborhood. The young of the Night- 

 hawk, like the eggs, harmonize so well in 

 color with the ground, that it is not easy to 

 discover them, even though your eyes may 

 have rested almost on the exact spot from 

 which the mother rose. 



The food of this species consists wholly 

 of insects. They devour great numbers of 

 beetles, moths, grasshoppers, crickets and 

 mosquitoes, and are thus extremely useful 

 birds. Notwithstanding this well-known 

 fact, great numbers of them are shot during 

 the autumn when they are migrating, prin- 

 cipally in mere wantonness, their swift flight 



making them an attractive target for the 

 gunner. 



It is a very common, though erroneous, 

 belief that the Nighthawk and the whip- 

 poorwill are the same bird. They belong 

 to the same family and are near relatives, 

 but are quite distinct. 



The Nighthawk is 9^ inches in length 

 and 23)4 inches across its outspread wings. 

 The bill is very short and feeble, measuring 

 only yl inch along its ridge, but its mouth 

 is enormous, opening to behind the eyes. 

 As might be expected in a bird which is to 

 a certain extent nocturnal in its habits, its 

 eyes are very large. The wings are long, 

 extending when closed beyond the forked 

 tail. The claw of the middle toe is notched, 

 or comb-like. The ground color of the 

 plumage is brownish black, barred and 

 sprinkled with white and cream color. A 

 conspicuous white bar extends across the 

 five outer primary quills. The tail feathers 

 are barred with brownish gray, and the four 

 outer ones on each side are marked with a 

 white spot toward the tip. A broad trian- 

 gular white band marks the throat and sides 

 of head. The lower tail coverts are white, 

 sparsely barred with black. The female is 

 somewhat smaller than the male, has the 

 wing spot smaller, the white throat band 

 much obscured by brownish and blackish 

 markings, and lacks the white spots on the 

 tail feathers. 



UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE 



BENEATH the tall white lighthouse strayed the children 

 In the May morning sweet; 

 About the steep and rough gray rocks they wandered 



With hesitating feet; 

 For scattered far and wide the birds were lying 



Quiet and cold and dead; 

 That met while they were swiftly winging southv^2cc<ii 

 The fierce light overhead. 



Celia Thaxter. 



