Nighthawk 
177 
cealment perfect. Not even the ovenbird con- 
trives that a peep at her eggs shall be so difficult 
for us. It is next to impossible to find them. 
Unlike the wicked cowbird, who builds no nest 
because she has no maternal instinct, the whip- 
poor-will, who is a devoted mother, makes none 
because none is needed. Once I happened upon 
two fuzzy, dark, yellowish-gray, baby whip-poor- 
wills (mostly mouths) in a hollow of a decayed, 
lichen-covered log, which was their “comfy” 
cradle ; but the frantic mother, who flopped and 
tumbled about on the ground around them, 
whining like a puppy, sent me running away 
from sheer pity. 
In the Southern States a somewhat larger 
whip-poor-will, but with the same habits, is 
known as chuck-will’s-widow. 
NIGHTHAWK 
Called also: Bull-hat; Night-jar; Mosquito-hawk 
Did you ever hear a rushing, whirring, boom- 
ing sound as though wind were blowing 
across the btmg-hole of an empty barrel? The 
nighthawk, who makes it, is such a high flyer^ 
that in the dusk of the late afternoon or early 
evening, when he delights to sail abroad to get 
his dinner, you cannot always see him; but as 
