The Texas Nighthawk 
Authorities.—Baird (Chordeiles texznsis), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. ix., 1858, 
p. 154 (Colo. R., Calif .); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 172, pi. iii., 
figs. 7-10 (eggs); Taylor, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, p. 222, fig. (Winslow, Glenn Co.; 
breeding); Oberholser, U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull. no. 86, 1914, p. 103 (monogr.); Swarth, 
Birds of. the Papago Saguaro Nat. Mon., 1920, p. 38 (courting “song,” habits, etc.). 
Taken in San Fernando Valley Photo by the Author 
EGGS OF TEXAS NIGHTHAWK, IN SITU 
THE NATURE loving pilgrim camping for a night in some desert 
wash will have occasion to wonder at a strange burring croak which wells 
np out of the ground, apparently from nowhere in particular. It is a 
weird sound, low, monotonous, and impersonal,—drowsy, too, if one can 
ignore the challenge of its mystery. It is the voice of a giant frog grown 
weary in a waterless land. Or it is the voice of the desert itself murmur¬ 
ing its gratitude before the cooling touch of nightfall. Pan wakes at this 
hour in yonder mountain glade and summons all his satyrs to revel, but 
here in the desert silence reigns, silence and the sole mystery of sound. 
The traveler sleeps, and rousing midway of his dreams, he seems to hear 
two voices, two deserts answering from nowhere. But each utters the 
self-same silence, bidding him resign again to slumber. 
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