156 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



give voice not far away, and putting a blade of 

 grass between my thumbs, answered him in his 

 own vernacular. He was not long in responding, 

 but the discovery of a human being instead of a 

 member of his kind disagreeably astonished him, 

 and he promptly took his departure again. 



Upon reaching my destination and going into 

 hiding, the day grew so dark and gloomy that 

 photography of any kind was quite out of the 

 question, so I determined to utilise my time in 

 the making of observations. 



When the hawk returned, she stood for a 

 minute on the edge of the nest, listening and 

 making a careful survey of everything within her 

 range of inspection. As soon as she became 

 satisfied that all was well, she stepped awkwardly 

 forward, and, sitting down, raked her eggs under 

 her breast with her hooked bill and chin, and 

 finally hustled them into position beneath her 

 by the usual side to side movements that always 

 seem to give incubating wild birds so much comfort 

 and satisfaction. 



In a very short time a heavy shower of rain 

 began to fall, and she found constant and annoying 

 employment in shaking the accumulating drippings 

 from the foliage above off her head and neck. 



During the afternoon the weather improved 

 somewhat, and the male bird arrived upon the 

 scene, and commenced to call very persistently 



