NIGHTHAWKS, ETC.: PACIFIC NIGHTHAWK 345 
closely were rewarded by discovering first one greenish finely speckled 
egg and then, two or three feet away, a second. Had the brooding 
bird, fearing danger, rolled her eggs apart or had she been so startled 
that she unintentionally rolled them apart in flying up? The next 
day we came on another brooding bird, but could discover only one 
egg. About a week later—July 4—we flushed a third Nighthawk, 
and this time, late as it was, found two eggs. While no nest is made, 
Major Bendire points out, a well-drained spot is selected for the egg, 
where the rains can not chill them or the young, a pretty instance of 
the way Nature’s problems are worked out. 
Nesting in exposed situations calls for all a mother’s best protective 
tactics. A parent bird that was flushed by Mr. Gaut at Tres Piedras 
“flew about ten feet and then dropped to the ground with wings flutter¬ 
ing as though it had been wounded” (MS). And one- that Major 
Bendire found incubating, after letting him approach so near that he 
could almost touch it, ruffled its feathers, and emitted a hissing sound 
somewhat resembling the spitting of an angry cat (1895, p. 169). 
An eastern Nighthawk that Mr. F. H. Herrick watched feeding 
its young was first seen gyrating around overhead with its mate noisily 
swooping low and ascending again, the excitement of the young on the 
ground below increasing as the sound approached. Then after a 
thud, as if a clod of earth had dropped, the mother bird, crawling over 
the leaves, began calling ke-ark, ke-ark , as a hen clucks to her chicks, 
awakening an immediate response in one of the young who started to 
go to her. As he could not fly, she came to him—coming within fifteen 
inches of Mr. Herrick’s hand with wings erect and full spread, at each 
utterance of her harsh ke-ark opening her great mouth, displaying the 
wide jaws and throat brilliantly aglow with the lights of fireflies! 
Approaching her little one whose down-covered wings were also 
spread and aquiver, she put her bill well down into his throat and 
gave him a meal of fireflies, after which she tucked him under her 
breast and brooded him till time for the next meal (1901, pp. 81-82). 
Additional Literature.—Allen, G. M., Birds and Their Attributes, p. 64, 
1925.— Beal, F. E. L., Educational Leaflet 1, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc. Bowles, 
J. H., Auk, XXXVIII, 203-217, 1921 (nesting).— Miller, A. H., Condor, XXVII, 
141-143, 1925 (boom-flight). 
PACIFIC NIGHTHAWK: Chordeiles minor hesperis Grinnell 
Description. — Male: Length 8.7-10.2 inches, wing 7.2-8.3, tail 4.2-4.7, bill 
.2-.3, tarsus .5-.6, middle toe .5-.6 (female slightly smaller); adult female, about 9.2 
inches. Individual variation in color very marked, especially in the female. Adult 
male: Darker than henrxji; regions of face and chest with pale ochraceous markings; 
white patches on throat, wingB, and tail large; dusky ground color of upperparts 
brownish black; dorsal region extensively mottled, on wing coverts with silvery gray; 
belly with whitish cast. Adult female: Ground color of upperparts lighter and 
