The Poor wills 
Taken in the hand, one sees what a quiet, inoffensive fay the Poor-will 
is, all feathers and itself a mere featherweight. The silken sheen and 
delicate tracery of the frost-work upon the plumage it were hopeless to 
describe. It is as though some fairy snowball had struck the bird full 
on the forehead, and from thence gone shivering, with ever lessening 
traces, all over the upperparts. Or, perhaps, to allow another fancy, the 
dust of the innumerable moth-millers, with which the bird is always 
wrestling, gets powdered over its garments. The large bristles which 
line the upper mandible, and which increase the catching capacity of the 
extensive gape by half, are seen to be really modified feathers, and not 
hairs, as might be supposed, for in younger specimens they are protected 
by little horny basal sheaths. With this equipment, and wings, our 
gentle hero easily becomes the envy of mere human entomologists. 
Taken in the Ojai Photo by Donald R. Dickey 
EGGS OF DUSKY POORWILL, IN SITU 
IO58 
