60 EVERYDAY BIRDS 



He spoke with an air of finality which left me 

 nothing to do but to smile and pass on. 



This little incident called to mind another, and 

 that put it into my head to write this article. 



A farmer, who had seen me passing his house 

 and loitering about his lanes and fields for sev- 

 eral years, often with an opera-glass in my hand, 

 one day hailed me to ask whether the nighthawk 

 and the whip-poor-will were the same bird, as he 

 had heard people say. I assured him (or rather 

 I told him it turned out that I had not made 

 him sure) that they were quite distinct, and pro- 

 ceeded to remark upon some of the more obvious 

 points of difference between the two, especially 

 as to their habits and manner of life. He lis- 

 tened with all deference to what I had to offer, 

 but as I concluded and turned to leave him, he 

 said : " Well, some folks say they 're the same. 

 They say one 's the he one and t' other 's the she 

 one ; but I guess they ain't." 



Verily, thought I, popular science lectures are 

 sometimes a failure. Not long afterward I was 

 telling the story to a Massachusetts man, a man who 

 had made a collection of birds' eggs in his time. 



" Why," said he, " are n't they the same ? I 

 always understood that they were the male and 

 female of the same species. That was the com- 

 mon belief where I was brought up." 



