Countries.

An excellent neighbor--a friend of the farmer and his cattle. An officer
in the guild of Sky Sweepers, who shoots through the air in the shape of
a bow and arrow.

"Come softly," said the Doctor, returning to the roadside; "I have found
the Pewee's nest; it is quite new, and has no eggs in it as yet. This
way--up along this ledge of rocks, and you can almost look into it."
They moved quietly over the rocks until they reached a pepperidge tree,
when the Doctor motioned them to stop and pointed to one of its branches
which stretched over the rock. There was a flat nest with an evenly
rounded edge, all covered with lichen scales outside.

"It is just like a Hummingbird's nest," whispered Nat.

"Only flatter, more like a saucer than a cup," said Rap. "Is it made of
plant-down, too?"

"No--of fine grasses, rootlets, and bits of bark," said the Doctor; "and
in a few days it will hold three or four creamy-white eggs, prettily
wreathed around one end with dark-brown spots."

"Pewee, pewee, pe-e-er!" cried the nest owner very sadly.

"We are going home, so you needn't worry, dear," said Dodo.
"Good-night."

CHAPTER XXII

TWO WINGED MYSTERIES

THE NIGHTHAWK

The sun was quite low when the party drove out of the lane; the birds
were singing their very best, and Olive stopped the horses on top of the
next hill, that they might all look at the beautiful twilight picture
around them.

"How quickly the sun slides when it once begins to go!" said Nat. "It
looks as if it were going into a cage with the striped clouds for bars."

"Shirk--shirk--boom!" A large bird that had been sailing about overhead
dropped through the air till it was almost over the surrey, then turned
suddenly and darted upward again.

"What is that?" cried Nat and Dodo.

"That's a Nighthawk--don't you remember the bird we heard early one
morning in the river woods? He's looking for small birds to eat,"
answered Rap.

"He is called the Nighthawk, but never eats anything except beetles,
flies, and other insects," said the Doctor, "for he is not a real Hawk.
He takes his name from the fact that he dashes about at twilight and in
cloudy weather like a Hawk; but his broad, shallow mouth is only
suitable for insect-eating, like his cousin's, the Chimney Swift's, and
the beak is equally small and feeble, not at all like the strong hooked
one of a cannibal bird. Look overhead!"

"There are two light spots like holes through his w