132 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



occupy this dainty cradle. Fourteen days' incu- 

 bation is sufficient to hatch the tiny twins, who 

 are fed by regurgitation — a murderous-looking 

 process, since nearly the whole length of the par- 

 ent bird's beak is thrust down the young one's 

 throat, and given a violent pumping motion; but 

 the youngsters enjoy it. 



The Eubythroat has a peculiar way of frol- 

 icking or dancing in the air by flying rapidly to 

 and fro in a 30-foot semicircle, as if swinging 

 on the end of a thread. At each conclusion of 

 this arc, before turning, he pauses for an excited 

 twitter. This sort of " spree" is declared by 

 some ornithologists to result from indulgence 

 in the sweet sun-fermented juices that flow from 

 Sapsucker borings in birch trees. I have never 

 caught him drinking sap myself, but this pendu- 

 lum-like swing has been performed before my 

 eyes more than once, and always in the same 

 wildly joyous fashion. 



WHIPPOORWILL 



Only after sunset does this bird open its 

 large, dark, peculiarly lidded eyes and steal forth 

 from the dense woods or thicket where it has 

 slept all day. The dusk is full of insects, and 

 flying low among them, it soon catches a supper 

 on the wing. The wide mouth is adapted for 

 this work, like the rim of a butterfly-net, and the 



