158 



Bird -Lore 



These were conducted from the umbrella blind which I find indispensable 

 to success in any effort to gain an insight into the home-life of birds. Both nests 

 and bhnd were conspicuous objects on the beach and, as in many other instances, 

 it proved to be important to have a cooperator whose departure, after I had 

 entered the blind, apparently reassured the owners of the nest within thirty 



*>;c-,.-^-?^ 



FISH HAWK LEAVING NEST 



An Amlubon Son'cly Warning Notice at the left 



feet of which the blind was placed. To enter the Ijlind alone, is to invest it with 

 your personaHty, when the bird will not return to its nest until the impression 

 created by your presence has become dimmed. At the best the blind itself is 

 regarded with much suspicion, and although the bird may return to her nest 

 before your companion is two hundred yards away, she regards the blind intently, 

 peering with a sinuous motion of the neck as though her gaze would penetrate 

 the cloth itself. Some birds are satisfied more easily than others and after half 

 an hour accept the blind without further question. Others keep it under close 

 surveillance for two hours and during this time the slightest sound or movement 

 of the cloth is greeted with the complaining alarm whistle, which, if the cause 

 be continued, arises to a slirill crescendo. 



In studying the life of the second nest here figured, the blind was entered at 

 eleven o'clock, when the 'male was seen flying about with a bit of fish which 

 he was evidently about to bring to the nest. The female returned to the nest 

 within ten minutes after my companion left me, but it was not until 12:50 that 

 she ceased to regard the blind with more or less alarm. During this time the 

 male flew about rapidly with the bit of fish still grasped in liis left foot, or perched 



