BIRDS WITH A HANDICAP 



while at rest in the hot part of the day, we might be 

 allowed to steal up fairly near and be allow^ed time for 

 a snapshot. But such good fortune is rare and at best 

 we should not be able to approach very near. But 

 when the nest is found, particularly w^hen incubation is 

 well under w ay, the sitting bird is often very tame and 

 the careful worker can be reasonably sure of success. 



To speak first of the Whippoorwill, the eggs are 

 usually laid, in northern or middle districts, about the 

 last of May or the first week in June. The best place 

 to look is in second growth w^oods, where there is a 

 moderate amount of undergrowth, usually near an 

 opening, and particularly where there is a pile of dry 

 brush or a fallen tree. The bird makes no nest, but 

 merely selects a spot on the dead leaves on the ground, 

 in the shade, where her two handsome eggs are de- 

 posited. The way I find a nest is to notice in the 

 evenings where Whippoorwills first begin to call in the 

 woods, and then by day tramp back and forth, round 

 and round, in that territory, beating the bushes with a 

 stick. The brown mother sits very closely, and her 

 colors and markings blend so wonderfully with the 

 surroundings that there is not one chance in a thousand 

 of seeing her thus. How^ever, if we walk within a few 

 feet of her she will fly up and away, and then the white 

 eggs are conspicuous enough. 



A few years ago there was a patch of w^oods and 

 shrubbery, a sort of island surrounded by open fields, 

 in w^hich a pair of Whippoorwills nested each season. 



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