A Nighthawk Incident 



127 



was setting when we reached the flat rock on which her eggs had been 

 laid and young hatched and where she had last been seen; but a frag- 

 ment of egg-shell was the only evidence that the bare-looking spot had 

 once been a bird's home. The grass had lately been mowed and there 

 was no immediately surrounding cover in which the bird might have 

 hidden. It is eloquent testimony of the value of her protective coloring, 

 therefore, that we should almost have stepped on the bird, who had 

 moved to a near-by flat rock, as we approached the place in which we 

 had expected to find her. 



Far more convincing, however, was her faith in her own invisibility. 

 Even the presence of a dog did not tempt her to flight, and when the 



NIGHTHAWK ON FENCE 



camera was erected on its tripod within three feet of her body, squatting 

 so closely to its rocky background, her only movement was occasioned by 

 her rapid breathing. 



There was other cause, however, beside the belief in her own incon- 



spicuousness to hold her to the rock; one little downy chick nestled at 



her side and with instinctive obedience was as motionless as its parent. 



So they sat while picture after picture was made from various points 



' of view and still no movement, until the parent was lightly touched, when, 



I starting quickly, she spread her long wings and sailed out over the fields. 



' Perhaps she was startled and deserted her young on the impulse of 



I sudden fear. But in a few seconds she recovered herself and, circling, 



returned and spread herself out on the grass at my feet. Then followed 



I the evolutions common to so many birds but wonderful in all. With 



