A STRANGE NEST 177 



to rest. We had been sitting there talking for some time 

 when I happened to put my hand down on the rail on 

 which I was sitting, and just for the fraction of a second 

 a knot on the rail moved slightly and then settled back as 

 quietly as before. But this one movement, slight as it 

 was, was enough to catch my eye, and I could see that the 

 object was not a knot but a bird. Clearly the bird felt that 

 she had made a mistake in moving, but still believed she 

 had not been detected. At any rate she allowed me very 

 slowly to move my hand closer until with a grab I caught 

 her. It was a whip-poor-will. Several times since I 

 have caught whippoorwills in just that way; but at the 

 time this was wholly new to me, and was my first experience 

 with animals depending for protection on being the same 

 color as the surrounding objects. 



I had several surprizes when I came to examine my 

 bird. Her body was about the size of a robin. In color 

 she was a queer mottling of dull brownish, blackish, and 

 gray white just the colors we see on our dead and de- 

 caying wood. Her feet and legs were small and poorly de- 

 veloped. I am sure they would have been of little use 

 in walking, but this is of little importance to the whip- 

 poorwill, for she does little of that. When I spread her 

 wings I met another surprize they were so long and well 

 developed. I could scarcely believe so small a bird could 

 have such long wings. In fact, they were so long they 

 appeared very slender, tho really they were about as broad 

 as the wings of some other bird of the same size. 



Many an evening I had seen whippoorwills flit about 

 near the ground over pastures and fields from an hour or 

 so before sunset till dark, and had been told that they 

 were catching insects. In fact, father had told me that in- 



