A NIGHTHAWK INCIDENT 31 



occasioned by her rapid breathing. Another cause, how- 

 ever, beside the belief in her own inconspicuousness held her 

 to the rock ; one little downy chick nestled at her side, and 

 with instinctive obedience it was as motionless as its parent. 



Nighthawk on Fence 



So they sat while picture after picture was made from 

 various points of view, there being no movement, until the 

 parent was lightly touched, when, starting quickly, she 

 spread her long wings and sailed out over the fields. Doubt- 

 less she was startled and deserted her young under the im- 

 pulse of sudden fear. But in a few seconds she recovered 

 herself and, circling, returned and spread herself out on the 

 grass at my feet. Then followed the evolutions common to 

 so many birds but wonderful in all. With surprising skill 

 in mimicry, the bird fluttered painfully along, ever just be- 

 yond my reach until it had led me a hundred feet or more 

 from its young, and then, the feat evidently successful, it 

 sailed away again, to perch first on a fence and later on a 



