. Bird neighbors : an introductory acquaintance with one hundred and fifty birds commonly found in the gardens, meadows, and woods about our homes . , which distinctly excludes birds of prey. Stories of itschicken-stealing prove to be ignorant rather than malicious slan-ders. Any one disliking the name, however, surely cannot com-plain of a limited choice of other names by which, in differentsections of the country, it is quite as commonly known. Too often it is mistaken for the whippoorwill. The night-hawk does not have the weird and woful cry of that more dismalbird, but gives instead a hars
. Bird neighbors : an introductory acquaintance with one hundred and fifty birds commonly found in the gardens, meadows, and woods about our homes . , which distinctly excludes birds of prey. Stories of itschicken-stealing prove to be ignorant rather than malicious slan-ders. Any one disliking the name, however, surely cannot com-plain of a limited choice of other names by which, in differentsections of the country, it is quite as commonly known. Too often it is mistaken for the whippoorwill. The night-hawk does not have the weird and woful cry of that more dismalbird, but gives instead a harsh, whistling note while on the wing,followed by a vibrating, booming, whirring sound that Nuttalllikens to the rapid turning of a spinning wheel, or a strongblowing into the bung-hole of an empty hogshead. This pecu-liar sound is responsible for the name nightjar, frequently givento this curious bird. It is said to be made as the bird drops sud-denly through the air, creating a sort of stringed instrument of itsoutstretched wings and tail. When these wings are spread, theirlarge white spots running through the feathers to the under side ■38. BrOTwn, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds should be noted to further distinguish the nighthawk from thewhippoorwill, which has none, hut which it otherwise closelyresembles. This booming sound, coming from such a height thatthe bird itself is often unseen, was said by the Indians to be madeby the shad spirits to warn the scholes of shad about to ascendthe rivers to spawn in the spring, of their impending fate. The flight of the nighthawk is free and graceful in the ex-treme. Soaring through space without any apparent motion ofits wings, suddenly it darts with amazing swiftness like an erraticbat after the fly, mosquito, beetle, or moth that falls within therange of its truly hawk-like eye. Usually the nighthawks hunt in little companies in the mostsociable fashion. Late in the summer they seem to be almostgregariou
Size: 1134px × 2205px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1898
