UNDER THE MAPLES 



any doubt about it, he would have observed them 

 more closely. I was sorry that he had not, as it 

 was one of the points on which I wanted indisput- 

 able evidence. We talked with the colored coach- 

 man about the birds, as he also had seen them. 

 His description agreed with Roosevelt's, and he had 

 seen wild pigeons in his youth; still I had my doubts. 

 Subsequently Roosevelt wrote me that he had come 

 to the conclusion that they had been mistaken 

 about their being pigeons. 



One day while there, as we were walking through 

 an old weedy field, I chanced to spy, out of the 

 corner of my eye, a nighthawk sitting on the 

 ground only three or four yards away. I called 

 Roosevelt's attention to it and said, *'Now, Mr. 

 President, I think with care you can drop your hat 

 over that bird." So he took off his sombrero and 

 crept up on the bird, and was almost in a position 

 to let his hat drop over it when the bird flew to a 

 near tree, alighting lengthwise on the branch as this 

 bird always does. Roosevelt approached it again 

 cautiously and almost succeeded in putting his hand 

 upon it; the bird flew just in time to save itself 

 from his hand. 



One Sunday after church he took me to a field 

 where he had recently seen and heard Lincoln's 

 sparrow. We loitered there, reclining upon the 

 dry grass for an hour or more, waiting for the 

 sparrow, but it did not appear. 



104 



