12 



Bird - Lore 



peeped out. There was the mother Nighthawk brooding her callow young amid 

 the incongruous surroundings of chimneys, cornices, and tin roofs. Cautiously 

 creeping up on my knees (by reason of the gravel a distinctly uncomfortable 

 procedure!), and slowly pushing in front of me my old-fashioned tripod camera, 

 I took two pictures at varying distances. The Nighthawk sat motionless with 

 eye half closed, as though dozing. But it is evident that she was watching me 

 closely; for, as soon as I had approached within about ten feet, with a sudden 

 start she flopped to one side and, as though painfully injured, went shuffling 

 across the roof. She trailed her wings pitifully and gave every other evidence 

 of helplessness in her efforts to induce us to follow after her. But, when she 

 discovered that she could not decoy us away in this fashion, she abandoned 

 her tactics and took up her position on the most convenient coign of obser- 

 vation — a chimney. Motionless, she watched to see what we would do to her 

 babies. We noted that she stood lengthwise on the chimney, not across it, — 

 a habit doubtless inherited from generations of ancestors who have found this 

 attitude on the limbs of trees inconspicuous and protective for the diurnal sleep. 

 In fact, she assvimed the same position wherever she chanced to perch — ^whether 

 on parapet, cornice, or coping — as, in my attempts to stalk her with my camera, 

 I scared her from one point to another. 



We then turned our attention to the two queer Httle gray fuzzy chicks, so 

 unceremoniously uncovered, yet apparently quite unperturbed. They made 



'AMID THE INCONGRUOUS SURROUNDINGS OF CHIMNEYS, CORNICES 

 AND TIN ROOFS" 



