32 TRAVELS ABOUT HOME 



limb in characteristic, lengthwise, Nighthawk attitude. 

 How are we to account for the development in so 

 birds of what is now a common habit? Ducks, Snipe, Grouse. 

 Doves, some ground-nesting Sparrows and Warblers, ana 

 many other species, also feign lameness, with the object ot 

 drawing a supposed enemy from the vicinity of their nest 

 or young. With each one there is the most admirable ad- 

 justment of means to the end. Hasten your pace and the bird 

 hastens hers ; slacken yours and the bird goes slower. She 

 is always at your finger tips. She takes the utmost possible 

 risk in the eff ort to deceive you into believing that at the 

 next step the prize is yours. Are we to believe that each in 

 dividual who so cleverly opposes strategy to force does so 

 intelligently? Or are we to believe that the habit has been 

 acquired through the agency of natural selection and is no\v 

 purely instinctive f 



In characteristic, lengthwise, Nighthawk attitude.' 



