LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT. 43 



through the chaparral, brushing me against the 

 the stiff scrub oak and loping under low branches 

 so fast that the sharp leaves snapped back, sting- 

 ing my cheeks. We had a gay ride, with a spice 

 of excitement thrown in ; for on our way home, in 

 the thick dust across our path, besides the pretty 

 quail tracks that made wall-paper patterns on the 

 road, were the straight trails of gopher snakes, 

 and the scalloped one of a rattlesnake we had 

 been just too late to meet. 



At our next session with the blue-grays, when 

 she was on the nest, her mate came back to re- 

 lieve her and cried in his quick cheerful way, 

 " Here I am, here I am ! " Either she was tak- 

 ing a nap or did n't want to stir, for she did n't 

 budge till he called insistently, " Here I am, here 

 I am ! " Then he hopped down in her place, and 

 raising his head above the nest, remarked again, 

 as if commenting upon the new situation, " Here 

 I am ! " 



It was quite a different matter when she came 

 back to work. She only called " hello," not even 

 hinting that he should make way for her, but he 

 hopped off at the first sound of her voice, flying 

 away promptly to another tree and calling back 

 like a gleeful boy let out of school, " Here I am ! " 



She was no more eager to go to the nest than 

 he, however, and once when she came flirting 

 leisurely along from twig to twig, she stopped a 

 long time on the edge of the nest and leaned 



