. Camps and cruises of an ornithologist, by Frank M. Chapman .. . ere she had been las1seen, and on which her eggs had been laid and her younghatched, but a fragment of egg-shell was the only evidencethat the bare-looking spot had once been a birds home. Thegrass had lately lieen mowed and there was no immediatelvsurrounding cover in which the bird might have hidden. Ilis eloquent testimony of the value of her protective coloringtherefore, that we almost stepi)ed on the bird, which hadmoved to a near-by flat rock. Far more convincing, however, was her faith in her owninvisibility. Even the pre
. Camps and cruises of an ornithologist, by Frank M. Chapman .. . ere she had been las1seen, and on which her eggs had been laid and her younghatched, but a fragment of egg-shell was the only evidencethat the bare-looking spot had once been a birds home. Thegrass had lately lieen mowed and there was no immediatelvsurrounding cover in which the bird might have hidden. Ilis eloquent testimony of the value of her protective coloringtherefore, that we almost stepi)ed on the bird, which hadmoved to a near-by flat rock. Far more convincing, however, was her faith in her owninvisibility. Even the presence of a dog did not tempt herto flight, and when the camera was erected on its tripodwithin three feet of hei- body, scfuatting so closely to itsrocky background, her only movement was that which was A NIGHTHAWK INCIDENT 31 occasioned by her rapid breathing. Another cause, how-ever, beside the belief in her own inconspicnonsness held heito the rock; one little downy chick nestled at her side, andwith instinctive o))edien(e it was as motionless as its Nighthawk on Fence So they sat while picture after picture was made fromvarious points of view, there being no movement, until theparent was lightly touched, when, starting quickly, shespread her long wings and sailed out over the fields. Doubt-less she was startled and deserted her young under the im-pulse of sudden fear. But in a few seconds she recoveredherself and, circling, returned and spread herself out on thegrass at my feet. Then followed the evolutions common toso many birds but wonderful in all. With surprising skillin mimicry, the bird fluttered painfully along, ever just be-yond my reach until it had led me a hundred feet or morefrom its young, and then, the feat evidently successful, itsailed away again, to perch first on a fence and later on a 32 TRAVELS ABOUT HOME limb in characteristic, lengthwise, Nighthawk attitude. How are we to account for the development in so man^birds of what is now a common habi
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
