SOME QUEER RELATIONS 149 



swift's and the swallow's, to catch any night-flying insects 

 — ^mosquitoes, June bugs, gnats, and little moths — that 

 cross his path. Long, stiffened bristles at the ends of his 

 mouth prevent the escape of a victim past the gaping trap. 

 On the wing the bird is exceedingly swift and graceful. He 

 is often mistaken for a night-hawk, or even a bat. 



Relying upon the protective covering of her soft plum- 

 age, the mother whippoorwiU builds no nest, but lays a 

 pair of mottled eggs in an old stump or directly on the 

 ground in the dark woods where a carpet of dead leaves and 

 decayed wood makes concealment perfect. Not even the 

 oven-bird contrives that a peep at her eggs shall be so diffi- 

 cult. It is next to impossible to find them. Unhke the 

 wicked cowbird, who builds no nest because she has no 

 maternal instinct, the whippoorwiU, who is a devoted 

 mother, makes none because none is needed. 



The Night-hawk 



When the night-jaa-, buU-bat, night-hawk or mosquito- 

 hawk is coursing low above the fields, with quick, erratic, 

 bat-like turns, notice the white spots, almost forming a bar 

 across his wiogs, for they, together with the white band 

 near the end of his slightly forked tail, wiU help to dis- 

 tinguish him from the whippoorwiU, who carries his 

 white signals on the outer feathers of his taU. Both of 

 these cousins wear the same colors, only they put them on 

 differently, the whippoorwiU having his chiefly mottled, 

 the night-hawk his chiefly barred. The latter wears a 

 broader white band across his throat. His mate sub- 

 stitutes buff for his white decorations. 



It is the night-hawk who makes the weird, rushing, whir- 



