Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/312

276 season, they plunge through the air, but the rusthng sound of their wings at this or any other time after the love season is less remarkable.

In the Middle States, about the 20th of May, the Night-Hawk, without much care as to situation, deposits its two, almost oval, freckled eggs, on the bare ground, or on an elevated spot in the ploughed fields, or even on the naked rock, sometimes in barren or open places in the skirts of the woods, never entering their depths. No nest is ever constructed, nor is the least preparation made by scooping the ground. They never, I be- Heve, raise more than one brood in a season. The young are for some time covered with a soft down, the colour of which, being a dusky brown, greatly contributes to their safety. Should the female be disturbed du- ring incubation, she makes her escape, pretending lameness, fluttering and trembhng, until she feels assured that you have lost sight of her eggs or young, after which she flies off, and does not return until you have withdrawn, but she will suffer you to approach her, if unseen, until with- in a foot or two of her eggs. During incubation, the male and female sit alternately. After the young are tolerably grown, and require less warmth from their parents, the latter are generally found in their imme- diate neighbourhood, quietly squatted on some fence, rail, or tree, where they remain so very silent and motionless that it is no easy matter to dis- cover them.

When wounded they scramble off very awkwardly, and if taken in the hand immediately open their mouth to its full extent repeatedly, as if the mandibles moved on hinges worked by a spring. They also strike with their wings in the manner of pigeons, but without any effect. The food of the Night-Hawk consists entirely of insects, especially those of the Coleopterous order, although they also seize on moths and caterpillars, and are very expert at catching crickets and grasshoppers, with which they sometimes gorge themselves, as they fly low over the ground with great rapidity. They now and then drink whilst flying closely over the water, in the manner of swallows.

None of these birds remain during the winter in any portion of the United States. The Chuck-will’s-widow alone have I heard, and found far up the St John's River, in East Florida, in January. Frequently during autumn, at New Orleans, I have known some of these birds to re- main searching for food over the meadows and river until the rainy season had begun, and then is the time at which the sportsmen shoot many of them down ; but the very next day, if the weather was still drizzly.