WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 193 
corresponded perfectly to the mounted specimen of the 
Dusky Poorwill which I had seen, but it was my first 
experience with the live bird. Three days later, when I 
went to the spot, there were two downy young ones in 
the nest, looking so much like the shadows on the pine 
needles that at first I could not see them and, but for 
the mother’s antics, would have given up the search. 
She flopped about on the ground, feigning a broken 
wing, wallowing among the leaves, and whining like a 
young puppy. I picked up one of the fuzzy babies, 
looked it over carefully, and replacing it, withdrew to 
hide and watch. For two hours she did nothing but 
brood them, but thereafter | was rewarded by seeing her 
lug one off to a distance of half a rod and drop down 
with it in a fern tangle. In a moment she came back 
for the other and repeated the performance. 
During the early evening hours of my watching she left 
the nest and came again, but apparently brought nothing 
in her bill, and if she fed them then it was by regurgita- 
tion. In all this time I saw nothing of the other parent 
either in the wood or near the nest, and do not think he 
paid any attention to the cares of the family. 
The Poorwills are nocturnal and crepuscular in habits, 
feeding upon night-moths, beetles, grasshoppers, and 
gnats, and ejecting the indigestible parts in the same 
manner as do the owls. Like owls also, they are abso- 
lutely noiseless and bat-like in flight. Their note is the 
well-known soft, two-syllabled call, so imperfectly repre- 
sented by letters, and rapidly repeated with scarcely 
a pause for breath throughout the evening hours. 
13 
