J 86 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



observed in cases of this kind that the nestlings do not leave the home so 

 soon, probably because development is impeded from lack of a full supply 

 of food. With polygamous birds the loss of a mate is of less importance, 

 but it would be interesting to learn what would happen to the cowbirds if 

 nine out of ten of the males were destroyed. 



Morris Gibbs. Mich. 



Whip-poor-will. 



When we were having our garden plowed this spring, the horses started 

 up a whip-poor-will from a large flat stone near by. 1 ran to see what was 

 there and found two large grayish eggs, spotted with dark brown and light. 

 We thought the plowing might disturb the bird so much that it would leave 

 its eggs, so had the garden made in another part of the field. 



I have been to the rock every day, sometimes several times a day, and 

 the bird became so accustomed to me that she took no notice of me in any- 

 way but seemed asleep on the "nest," if a bare rock without a straw or a 

 stick can be called a nest. The eggs were moved about by the bird each 

 day, yet were kept in the few grains of sand that had washed over the 

 edge of the rock. 



One day as I came past, the bird flew up and I saw that the eggs had 

 hatched. There were the two young birds, covered with downy feathers, 

 brown and gray, sitting so flat to the rock that at first I did not see them, 

 but thought them a piece of gray moss. They looked so cunning that I 

 took them up and cuddled them. After they were replaced they would 

 hop after my hand as I drew it from them. 



After a little I lay down in the grass and kept as quiet as possible to 

 watch them. Soon both the old birds came with flies, which they fed to 

 their baby-birds, and were off for more. The bird does not seem to brood 

 her little ones as most mother birds do, but sits, apparently aslesp, on the 

 rock a few inches away from the sleeping little ones, looking, at first 

 glance, as much like a large toad as like a bird, being speckled and spotted 

 with very nearly the same colors. 



The weather has been so hot that we have almost expected to find 

 broiled whip-poor-will some days, but instinct has taught them to move 

 with the sun, and so keep in the shade of the tall thick grass that surrounds 

 their dwelling place. They are growing rapidly and 1 fear the little family 

 we have watched with so much interest will soon leave us. We shall miss 

 the bird that comes at evening to our open door or window and sings whip- 

 pooT-uill, whip-poor-it'/// in such a jolly way. 



Randolph Lawrence Hayden, Haddam, Conn. 



