WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 193 



corresponded perfectly to the mounted specimen of the 

 Dusky Poorwill which I had seen, but it was my first 

 experience with the live bird. Three days later, when I 

 went to the spot, there were two downy young ones in 

 the nest, looking so much like the shadows on the pine 

 needles that at first I could not see them and, but for 

 the mother's antics, would have given up the search. 

 She flopped about on the ground, feigning a broken 

 wing, wallowing among the leaves, and whining like a 

 young ■ puppy- I picked up one of the fuzzy babies, 

 looked it over carefully, and replacing it, withdrew to 

 hide and watch. For two hours she did nothing but 

 brood them, but thereafter I was rewarded by seeing her 

 lug one off to a distance of half a rod and drop down 

 with it in a fern tangle. In a moment she came back 

 for the other and repeated the performance. 



During the early evening hours of my watching she left 

 the nest and came again, but apparently brought nothing 

 in her bill, and if she fed them then it was by regurgita- 

 tion. In all this time I saw nothing of the other parent 

 either in the wood or near the nest, and do not think he 

 paid any attention to the cares of the family. 



The Poorwills are nocturnal and crepuscular in habits, 

 feeding upon night-moths, beetles, grasshoppers, and 

 gnats, and ejecting the indigestible parts in the same 

 manner as do the owls. Like owls also, they are abso- 

 lutely noiseless and bat-like in flight. Their note is the 

 well-known soft, two-syllabled call, so imperfectly repre- 

 sented by letters, and rapidly repeated with scarcely 

 a pause for breath throughout the evening hours. 



13 



