i68 BIRD PARADISE 



great deal of the power of man in looking wild 

 animals straight in the eye, and I rather wanted 

 to try the scheme. So I looked, and the skunk 

 looked. All at once he pushed that look of his a 

 little nearer the parson. His advance was met 

 by the parson's advance, but rearward. The look 

 squarely in the eye was in the skunk's favor. The 

 scheme worked, but not quite as I expected. After 

 all, I said — a crumb of comfort in the saying — 

 why shouldn't the skunk win in the contest? It 

 was his home domain. 



In the changes that have taken place in our hill 

 country I notice the practical disappearance of 

 the night-hawk. In my boyhood sixty years ago 

 they were a common bird in this section. Fre- 

 quently in the fall of the year they would appear 

 just at night in large flocks passing until long 

 after dark. They have many characteristics in 

 common with the whippoorwill, being sometimes 

 mistaken for that bird. A call note or two com- 

 prises their entire song. A sound they make in 

 flying has a harsh, whistling stroke peculiar to 

 this bird alone. It is now thought that it is pro- 

 duced by the action of the air in the open mouth 

 of the bird. Curious that this species of bird 

 should ignore nest building almost altogether. 



