BIRD NOTES. 81 
similar circumstances; the same waddling uneasy squat, with out- 
stretched wings and staring eyes. Observing that the bird had 
risen from a small, flat, lichen-tufted rock, I intently focused my 
eye for those anticipated animated bits of moss in the shape of 
fledglings, and soon differentiated from the bed of lichen their 
fuzzy identity. They were not drow, as Wilson says, but sug- 
gested a tufty spot of gray mould not only in color but in 
melting cloudy quality, its edge on the one side seeming to 
vanish, while on the other mainly manifest by relief against its 
shadow on the rock. The callow twins were presumably about 
two days old, and the wisdom of their singular flat build now 
seemed perfectly attested, as they hugged close and motionless 
to their bed. Thus they appeared when first observed, their in- 
herited instinct teaching them the perfect safety of their dis- 
guise and the prudence of quiescence. The immediate surprise 
being over, however, the two sluggish, sleepy-eyed innocents were 
suddenly transformed. With surprising agility they were both 
on their feet, and with out-stretched necks and comical skinny 
wings high upraised, they made quick time for the bordering jun- 
gle of grasses. The sudden appearance of these long fuzzy el- 
bowed flippers seemed like hocus pocus, for the downy sides give 
no hint of their presence. When headed off and returned to 
their original nest—for the nest of the nighthawk is simply a 
hollow, among lichen worn by the nesting bird—the outlandish 
little babes became quite docile, following my out-stretched finger 
with wide-open mouths and quivering flippers, and uttering weak, 
high-keyed plaints somewhat suggestive of the comfortable whis- 
pering interchange beneath the brooding hen in the coop. 
In the night I revisited the scene, with the intention of kid- 
napping this interesting family—a fool’s errand, it might be said, 
knowing full well that those same sleepy, half-closed eyes which 
at noontide would delude you to steal a hand upon that boozy! 
sphinx upon the wall are now inviting all the visible darkness to 
their full round depths. Remembering, however, the mesmeric 
effect of the “jack-light” upon other nocturnal game, I conclud- 
ed to test the effect of my dark-lantern’s glare upon my bird. 
II 
