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a tiuie she atouIcI fly off twenty or thirty feet aud sit either on a stump ot 

 lengthwise on a limb or log. She always sat lengthwise with her head 

 toward me and apparently did not move an eyelid while I was there. I 

 would scarcely leave the nest until she would be back brooding. Her 

 flight was always perfectly noiseless. In leaving the nest the bird never 

 emitted a sound, but as soon as she fell to the ground she always gave the 

 same rapid series of hoarse chucks. 



Her large full eye was always very noticeable at such times. I re- 

 turned at 9 a. m. June 29. The young one No. 2 was just about two-thirds 

 the size of the older one. The day was cold and i-aw and the older bird 

 commenced to utter a shrill peet. This sound was perfectly indistinguish- 

 able to me at a distance of ten feet. HoAvever, it reached the ears of the 

 mother who sat thirty feet away. She immediately became restless and 

 commenced to fly from one object to another until I took the hint and 

 left. I was scarcely forty feet away when I saw the mother fly to the 

 nest. 



I returned at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day (July 29). The 

 older of the young ones could now toddle around some and was not quite 

 as helpless. The mother bird in rising kicked the two little birds about 

 two feet apart. The younger lay perfectly still where she kicked it, but 

 tlie older one toddled on about one foot farther and hid under a leaf where 

 it was perfectly indistinguishable. 



On the next day, June 30, the older bird could run quite lively for a 

 short distance. It ran with extended wings, as a quail does. The younger 

 was still helpless. On this day I searched the entire neighborhood to see 

 if I could scare up the male bird. I had never seen him yet. I hunted 

 in vain. I returned to the nest and while gazing at the mother bird brood- 

 ing I saw to my astonishment a large mosquito light on her head near the 

 base of her bill. The mosquito probed around awhile and then crawled 

 out to the very tip of her bill, stayed there meditating for a minute and 

 then flew away. All the while the mother bird never moved a muscle. 



I returned to the pen on the morning of July 1 and found the birds 

 where I had left them. The younger bird could now move around pretty 

 lively, but was much smaller than the other. The old bird was getting 

 accustomed to my presence now, so that I could photograph her with the 

 lens of the camera not more than three feet from her, without scaring her 

 from the nest. After taking the negative I approached my hand within 

 six inches of her before she quietly but quickly flew away. She still per- 



