Plate 61 |
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A Model Caption
The Caption
This painting features the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), which breeds throughout North America from Canada to Panama, save for the extreme north and some southwestern deserts, and winters in South America. Common residents of many American cities, nighthawks spend their days sleeping on flat rooftops, where they also lay their eggs (usually two). They typically wait until sundown to take to the air, and their strange buzzing chirp blends in with their surroundings--resembling the sound of some electrical gizmo more than it does the call of a living creature. On summer evenings in Salt Lake City the artist, Carel Pieter Brest van Kampen, loves to watch them catch insects. Watching them, he is always struck by the contrast of two worlds: birds above and people below, each species seemingly oblivious to the other. Juxtaposing the two worlds in his fictitious scene required a bird’s-eye-view. Nighthawks are opportunistic birds who adapted well to urban sites and became common in cities after the mid-1800s, when gravel roofs were introduced. Where artificial light attracts moths, nighthawks often catch them--and once in a while they also catch the eye of those who, like this artist, are looking up from below.[68]
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