THE WILD MOTHER 231 



sake their babies — no, not even for fear of these 

 approaching monsters, which had never been seen 

 clambering over their rocks before ! 



One of the monsters stood stock still a moment 

 for the other one, the photographer, to come up. 

 Then both of them took a step nearer. It was 

 very interesting. I had often come slowly up to 

 quail on their nests, and to other birds. Once I 

 crept upon a killdeer in a bare field until my 

 fingers were almost touching her. She did not 

 move because she thought I did not see her, it 

 being her trick thus to hide within her own feath- 

 ers, colored as they are to blend with the pebbly 

 fields where she lays her eggs. So the brown quail 

 also blends with its brown grass nest. But those 

 murres, though colored in harmony with the rocks, 

 were still, not because they hoped I did not see 

 them. I did see them. They knew it. Every bird 

 in the great colony had known it, and had gone 

 — with the exception of these two. 



What was different about these two? They 

 had their young ones to protect. But so had every 

 bird in the great colony its young one, or its egg, 

 to protect ; yet all the others had gone. Did these 

 two have more love than the others, and with 



