AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE. 101 



in the nesting season call for their mates on the 

 hills. He had seen one stand on a bowlder fif- 

 teen feet high, and after strutting up and down 

 the rock with his tail and wings hanging, stop to 

 call, putting his bill down on the rock and going- 

 through contortions as if pumping out the sound. 

 The lad thought his calls were answered from the 

 brush below. 



In April the ranchman reported that he had 

 seen dusky poor-wills, relatives of our whip-poor- 

 wills, out flycatching on the road beyond the 

 ranch-house after dark. He had seen as many as 

 eight or nine at once, and they had let him come 

 within three feet of them. Accordingly, one night 

 right after tea I started out to see them. The 

 poor-wills choose the most beautiful part of the 

 twenty-four hours for their activity. When I 

 went out, the sky above the dark wall of the val- 

 ley was a quiet greenish yellow, and the rosy 

 light was fading in the north at the head of the 

 canyon. White masses of fog pushed, in from 

 the ocean. Then the constellations dawned and 

 brightened till the evening star shone out in her 

 full radiant beauty. Locusts and crickets droned ; 

 bats zigzagged overhead ; and suddenly from the 

 dusty road some black objects started up, fluttered 

 low over the barley, and dropped back on the 

 road again. At the same time came the call of 

 the poor-will, which, close at hand, is a soft burr- 

 ing poor-will, poor-wiU-low. Two or three hours 



