34 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



feathers just under her chin were quivering, while 

 her beak was held slightly as slightly as possible 

 open. I thought she must be churring, but no 

 sound reached my ear, so I concluded she was 

 asleep merely, and dreaming that she was. She sat 

 so still and close that I never imagined she could 

 have ceased incubating. I had seen her eggs, too, 

 as I thought, yesterday ; but in this I may have 

 been mistaken. All at once, however, a strange 

 little, flat, fluffy thing ran out from under her 

 breast, and, stretching up, touched its mother's 

 beak with its own. She did not respond, however, 

 on which the chick ran back, disappointed. As soon 

 as that queer little figure had disappeared, I was all 

 eagerness to see it again, but hour after hour went 

 by, the old bird drowsed and dreamed, and still 

 there was no re-emergence. It seemed as though I 

 had had an hallucination of the senses, all looked so 

 still and unchangeable ; but, at last, as the evening 

 began to fall, and churring to be heard round about, 

 out, suddenly, came the little apparition again, 

 accompanied, this time, with an exact duplicate 

 of itself. The two appeared from opposite sides, 

 and, with a simultaneous jump, seized and struggled 

 for the beak of the mother, who again resisted, and 

 then, suddenly, darted off, just as, with " quaw-ee, 

 quaw-ee," the partner bird flew up. He settled 

 himself beside the chicks, and when they sprang up 

 at him, as they had just before done at the mother, 

 he fed one thoroughly, but not the other, flying off 

 immediately afterwards. The hen soon returned, 

 and fed both the chicks several times, always, as I 

 say, by the regurgitatory process. Between the 



