Plate LIV. 



Fw. 4. CHORDEILES POPETUE-Nighi Hawk, 



The Night Hawk is one of our most familiar birds. It is distributed quite evenly throughout the state, 

 and is found in town as well as in the country. It arrives from the south about the middle of April, 

 and remains until November. The young are hatched the last of May or the first of June. 



LOCALITY : 



In town the Night Hawk usually selects a flat roof of a building for a place for depositing its eggs, 

 but in the country a rocky ledge or a plat of dry barren land in an open field is chosen for the site. I 

 have found its eggs on the dry sheeting of the state dam, across the Scioto river, just below Circleville, 

 and also upon its stone abutments. Wherever the "Hawks" abound the eggs maybe looked for in the 

 most exposed and barren places — places which receive the sun's rays during the greater part of the 

 day. No materials are carried for the nest; even the natural surroundings of the spot selected are 

 seldom, if ever, disturbed; the eggs being laid in a slight depression, or among pebbles, which prevent 

 their rolling. 



EGGS: 



A full set of eggs consists of but two; those of the same set are quite like each other; but eggs 

 from different birds vary much in size, shape, ground-color, and markings. Dr. Brewer, in " North 

 American Birds," describes the eggs as folloAvs : 



"The eggs of this bird are always two in number, elliptical in shape, and equally obtuse at either 

 end. They exhibit marked variations in size, in ground-color, and in the shades and number of their 

 markings. In certain characteristics and in their general effect they are alike, and all resemble oblong. 

 oval dark-colored pebble-stones. Their safety in exposed places is increased by this resemblance to the 

 stones among which they lie. They vary in length from 1.30 to 1.13 inches, and in breadth from .84 to 

 .94 of an inch. Their ground is of various shades of stone-color; in some of a dirty white, in others 

 with a tinge of yellow or blue, and in yet others a clay-color. The markings are more or less diffused 

 over the entire egg, and differ more or less with each specimen ; the prevailing colors being varying 

 shades of slate or yellowish-brown." 



The three eggs illustrated, Plate LIV, fig. 4, show the extreme varations in size, shape, and mark- 

 ings in those eggs with which I have met, but I have not found many sets. The eggs in my possession, 

 taken in Ohio, measure as follows : 1.08 x .77, 1,10 x .76, 1.13 x .78, 1 .13 x .80, 1.15 x .80, 1.17 x .82, 1.17 x .86. 



DIFFERENTIAL POINTS: 



The eggs of the Night Hawk are of such size, shape, color, and marking, that with a little attention 

 they can be readily recognized. 



195 



