372 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
So they sat while picture after picture was made from 
various points of view, and still no movement, until the 
parent was lightly touched, when, starting quickly, she 
spread her long wings and sailed out over the fields. 
Perhaps she was startled, and deserted her young on the 
impulse of sudden fear. But in a few seconds she re- 
covered herself, and circling, returned and spread herself 
out on the grass at my feet. Then followed the evolutions 
common to so many birds but wonderful in all. With 
surprising skill in mimicry, the bird fluttered painfully 
along, ever just beyond my reach, until it had led mea 
hundred feet or more from its young, and then, the feat 
evidently successful, it sailed away again, to perch first 
on a fence and later on a limb in characteristic (length- 
wise) Nighthawk attitude. 
How are we to account for the development in so many 
birds of what is now a common habit? Ducks, Snipe, 
Grouse, Doves, some ground-nesting Sparrows and War- 
blers, and many other species also feign lameness, with 
the object of drawing a supposed enemy from the vicinity 
of their nest or young. Are we to believe that each individ- 
ual who in this most reasonable manner opposes strategy 
to force, does so intelligently? Or are we to believe that 
the habit has been acquired through the agency of natu- 
ral selection, and is now purely instinctive? Probably 
neither question can be answered until we know beyond 
question whether this mimetic or deceptive power is 
inherited. — FRANK M. CHAPMAN, in Bird-Lore. 
* * * * * ** * 
“Now comes the Chimney Swift, universally called the 
Chimney Swallow; with small, compact body, only a little 
