The Pacific Nighthawk 
startled to see it on July 5, 1911, charging about over the melting snow¬ 
banks at the Cottonwood Lakes (elevation 11,000 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 Alight 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 fiut- 
1 cf. Bird Lore, Vol. V., March, 1903, pp. 43-45 
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