WATSON'S CROSSING. 87 



sense than that of sight. Ornithologists differ as to this. 

 Dr. Brewer, in the " History of North American Birds," 

 says : " It has, strictly speaking, no claim to its common 

 name, as indicating it to be a bird of the night, which 

 it is not. It is crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, and 

 even this habit is more due to the flight of the insects 

 upon which it feeds at morning and at evening than to 

 any organization of the bird rendering it necessary." 

 This is probably too emphatic an assertion. It seems 

 so, certainly, when I recall my own observations in past 

 years ; and I find a writer in the " American Naturalist," 

 Vol. VII., stating it to be " both diurnal and nocturnal 

 in its habits, but more properly the latter." This more 

 fully accords with my own conclusions, except that the 

 term "crepuscular" is preferable to nocturnal. The 

 writer just quoted further remarks, " It is in the dusk 

 of the evening that they may be seen in the greatest 

 numbers ; when, in certain localities and at certain sea- 

 sons of the year (especially in the fall), thousands may 

 be seen darting around in their rapid and necessarily 

 irregular flight. As darkness approaches, they descend 

 to the earth and skim along the surface, snatching up 

 any ill-fated bug that may have failed to find shelter." 



This is true of them, as I have noticed for years, when 

 they gather over the meadows. At times they fly at so 

 great an elevation that it is difficult to distinguish them 

 from the ever-present swallows ; but as the air cools and 

 sunset draws near, lower and lower is the plane of their 

 flight until they barely skim the tall weeds of the 

 marshes. 



The comments, during haying and harvest, of some of 



