176 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



many whippoorwills in our neighborhood and it was only 

 when we went over to the river that we heard them 

 whistle. 



Of course I was interested and would have liked to watch 

 till the eggs hatched and the birds grew up. But as it 

 was two or three miles from home and the garden needed 

 hoeing, and when there was time to play there were so 

 many things worth investigating near by, I did not get 

 back to the nest. Orvil and I did not go to the same 

 school so I never asked him whether he watched the young 

 birds hatch and grow up or not; but I have always been 

 glad I saw this whippoorwill's nest, for I have never 

 found another in just that kind of place. 



When the birds were learning to build their nests, evi- 

 dently the whippoorwill had a lazy fit, for she does not 

 build. She simply selects a spot on the ground, in the 

 brush or woods or in some similar out-of-the-way place, 

 and lays her eggs without even the trouble of wallowing a 

 hole in the ground. They are sometimes laid even on top 

 of a dead leaf or on the grass. I presume the reason why 

 she lays her eggs on the ground is that the ground is so 

 nearly her own color that there she can feel safe from be- 

 ing caught while brooding. A whippoorwill does not 

 fly in the broad daylight. I do not know whether she 

 sees well in the daytime or not, but I am inclined to think 

 the light dazzles her eyes much as it dazzles the eyes 

 of an owl. She depends almost entirely on her color for 

 protection. 



When I was about ten years old, two or three of us 

 started up to the head of Wymore's Branch to gather dog's- 

 tooth violets and Dutchman's breeches. After we had 

 all become tired, we clambered on the top of a rail fence 



