144 



sistcd in licr aci'dli.-itic tricks to try to draw nie away from the nest and 

 she did in fact go tlirongli this same performance every time I visited her. 



On the next day, .Tnly 2, I seared the motlier from the nest l)y toucli- 

 ing lier on tlie head and tlie two little AN'liip-iiooi'-wills lioth ran and liid 

 nnder a leaf. It took some little Time for me to find them again. The 

 older now had promise of fntnre feathers. Nothing was visible on llie 

 yonnger hut down. 



July 3, when I attempted to scare the mother bird from the nest slie 

 tlew around my head quite fiercely, touching my ear once with her wing 

 and then fell to the ground in her usual attitude of broken-back misery. 

 The older of the two young ones now had tlie beginning of some mottled 

 feathers. 



At 9 o'clock on the following morning, July 4, I arrived at the [)en. 

 Imagine my surpi'ise and chagi'in to find the enclosure empty. Appar- 

 ently I was wrong and Whip-poor-wills did c.-irry their young away. 1 

 decided she could not carry tiiem very far aw;iy so I commenced to beat 

 the bushes around the pen. About ten feet nortli of the i)i'n I flushed the 

 mother bird. I looked down just in time to see young Whip-poor-will No. 

 1 run under a leaf but did not see No. 2 at all. I looked around under the 

 leaves for a few minutes and finally discovered No. 2 sitting cahnly on an 

 old leaf right before my eyes. I brought them together and i)hotographed 

 them. It was a warm day and they were directly in the sun's rays. In a 

 short time I noticed that their throats began to vi))rate rapidly and eacli 

 uttered a few shrill peets. P.oth, then, almost simultaneously toddled off 

 and stopped in the shelter of a little Aveed. I left them and examined the 

 pen. I found several i>laci's wliei'e even the old \\'liip-i>(i(ir-will could get 

 through. I therefore decided that she had coaxed them to follow hi'r 

 instead of carrying them. So, to prove it, I l)rought ;i l)ox with th(> liottom 

 knocked out and about one and one-half feet higli. and pl;iced this over 

 the nest. I reasoned that if she carried them she could cai'ry them out of 

 that box without any trouble; if slie coaxed them they could not get out 

 .•IS one and one-half feet was too much for the young ones. 



I retiu-ned three days later. July 7. The family wtn-e still there just as 

 I had left them. AVhip-poor-will No. 1 now had a much better coat of 

 feathers, and (juills were beginning to appear on No. 2. I made a visit to 

 the nest once every day now foi- four days and after scaring the Whip- 

 poor-will off would retire to a distance and then slip back softly. I fomid 

 that the mother l)ird invari.-ilily lit on the edge of tlie liox before going to 



