116 Bird- Lore
Then we To gain this a brier, which grew within twelve inches of the triangle. was Cut away. Our next picture was to be of the eggs, so I undertook to frighten the bird off and moved my hand up gently toward it as it sat with wide—open eyes and quivering throat. It walked off with outspread wings when my lingers were about to touch it and sat down just outside its triangular home. Next I went round to the opposite side and put down my hand to make it spread its wings for a snap-shot.
without disturbing the bird. which was asleep part of the time. changed our position for a different View.
It now had three men and
Nltilll‘HAWK SI‘I'I'NG
a camera within a few feet of it and did not seem daunted. but with ruflied
feathers, open mouth, spread wings and rail, backed hissing over the edge of the triangle. We had worked for an hour or more and had taken five time-
exposures and one snap-shot. yet we left the bird at home when we went away. ” What a devoted mother!” you say, but it was really the fatherY whose habit it is to sleep on the nest after his night's outing. Mean- time the mother was flying about for insects or resting on a branch near by. She took her place on the eggs at night and watched, I sup- pose, during the absence of her husband until dawn. At any rate, I have seen her there at seven at night and at half past three in the morning,
