NIGHT-HAWK 



67 



denly; at which mstant is heard a loud booming sound, very much 

 resembling that produced by blowing strongly into the bung hole 

 of an empty hogshead; and which is doubtless produced by the 

 sudden expansion of his capacious mouth, while he passes through 

 the air, as exhibited in the figure on the plate. He again mounts 

 by alternate quick and leisurely motions of the wings, playing about 

 as he ascends, uttering his usual hoarse squeak, till in a few minutes 

 he again dives with the same impetuosity and violent sound as 

 before. Some are of opinion that this is done to intimidate man 

 or beast from approaching his nest, and he is particularly observed 

 to repeat these divings most frequently around those who come 

 near the spot, sweeping down past them, sometimes so near, and 

 so suddenly, as to startle and alarm them. The same individual 

 is, however, often seen performing these manoeuvres over the river, 

 the hill, the meadow and the marsh in the space of a quarter of an 

 hour, and also towards the Fall, when he has no nest. This singu- 

 lar habit belongs peculiarly to the male. The female has, indeed, 

 the common hoarse note, and much the same mode of flight; but 

 never precipitates herself in the manner of the male. During the 

 time she is sitting, she will suffer you to approach within a foot or 

 two before she attempts to stir, and when she does, it is in such a 

 fluttering, tumbling manner, and with such appearance of a lame 

 and wounded bird, as nine times in ten to deceive the person, and 

 induce him to pursue her. This " pious fraud,'^ as the poet Thomp- 

 son calls it, is kept up until the person is sufficiently removed from 

 the nest, when she immediately mounts and disappears. When 

 the young are first hatched it is difficult to distinguish them from 

 the surface of the ground, their down being of a pale brownish co- 

 lor, and they are altogether destitute of the common shape of birds, 

 sitting so fixed and so squat as to be easily mistaken for a slight 

 prominent mouldiness lying on the ground. I cannot say whether 

 they have two brood in the season; I rather conjecture that they 

 have generally but one. 



