The Pacific Nighthawk 



startled to see it on July 5, 1911, charging about over the melting snow- 

 banks at the Cottonwood Lakes (elevation 1 1 ,000 feet) ; though it seems 

 I should have been more surprised to find it on the 19th of June at Lone 

 Pine, where the Texas Nighthawk (C. acutipennis texensis) is supposed to 

 reign supreme. In the latter instance, it is fair to suppose that the bird 

 had only descended temporarily from the Sierran heights which command 

 Owens Valley. Mrs. Bailey 1 once found a nest on the crest of the Sierra 

 Nevada Range, above Donner Lake. The Pacific Nighthawk is a com- 

 mon breeding bird in the San Bernardino Range, and Dr. Grinnell took 

 eggs at an altitude of 9000 feet on San Gorgonio Peak; though, singu- 

 larly enough, the species is wanting in the San Jacinto Range, of almost 

 equal elevation, immediately to the south. 



While not at any time strictly gregarious, favorable conditions are 

 likely to attract considerable numbers of Nighthawks to a given spot. I 

 have seen dozens of birds at a time winging noiselessly to and fro over 

 the tranquil waters of an inland lake, and on several occasions com- 

 panies of from one to two hundred executing some grand march, or aerial 

 parade, over a well-watered pasture. These convocations are not neces- 

 sarily preliminary to the autumnal movement, for I once saw such an 

 assemblage at Goose Lake, in Modoc County, on the 23rd of June (1912). 

 It had snowed the day before, so possibly these birds had been driven in 

 from the hills to a place of assured sustenance, much as Swallows are 

 driven to the ponds in early spring. During migration, too, scores of 

 these birds may sometimes be seen- moving aloft in loose array, and 

 customarily, at this season, silent. 



The feature of Nighthawk life which chiefly endears him to the 

 popular regard is the courting flight of the male. After much preliminary 

 shifting and many emphatic bayards he suddenly casts himself headlong 

 down the air in a great parabola of flight. As he turns sharply and at 

 break-neck speed, he produces a loud booming daw-w — though whether 

 by the rushing of air through the wings or across the opened mouth will. 

 perhaps, never be determined. 



The eggs of the Nighthawk are heavily mottled with slaty and other 

 tints, which render them practically invisible to the searching eye, even 

 though they rest upon the bare ground or, as oftener, upon an exposed and 

 lichen-covered rock ledge. Except during the very warmest hours (when 

 the sun's rays might addle them) and the coolest(when they might become 

 chilled), the sitting bird is likely to rest beside her eggs instead of on them. 

 The young birds when hatched place great reliance upon their protective 

 coloration, and even permit the fondling of the hand rather than confess 

 the defect of their fancied security. The old bird, meanwhile, has flut- 



1 cf. Bird Lore, Vol. V., March. 1903, pp. 43-45 



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