84 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. 



Caprimwlgus vociferus, WILS. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 71, pi. xli. 

 " BONAP. Syn. 1828, p. 62. 



AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 422 ; V, 405 ; pi. Ixxxii. 

 " NUTTALL, Manual, I, 1832, 614. 



AUD. Syn. 1839, p. 31. 



" " " Birds of Am. I, 1840, 155, pi. xlii. 



" " RICH. & SWAINS. F. B. A. II, 1831, 336. 



" LEMBEYE, Aves de la Isla de Cuba, 1850, p. 130. 



Caprimulgus virginianus, VIEILL. Ois d'Am. Sept. I, 1807, 65. 

 Caprimulgus clamator, VIEILL. Nouv. Diet. X, 1817, 234. 

 Caprimulgus macromystax, WAGLER, Isis, 1831, p. 533. 

 Antrostomus vociferus, BONAP. Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, p. 8. 



CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cat.), 1854, p. 236. 

 VULG. The Whip-poor-will. 



THE nocturnal habits of the Whip-poor-will do not enable the naturalist either 

 very closely to observe them, or to ascertain them with accuracy. Much is neces- 

 sarily inferred, rather than positively known, in regard to them. Seldom approach- 

 ing the habitation of man, except in remote and thinly settled parts of the country, 

 and then only in the obscurity of night, its singular note is nearly all that we are 

 quite familiar with in regard to it. To this only can be attributed the singular fact 

 that, notwithstanding the well-marked distinctions between it and the Night-Hawk, 

 they have been, and still are, in many parts of the country, confounded together by 

 the uninformed. The correctness of a statement to the same effect made by 'Mr. 

 Wilson has been questioned by Mr. Audubon, but without good grounds. Unac- 

 countable as it may appear, the vulgar error that these birds are the same is still 

 very prevalent in many parts of New England, and even finds a place among those 

 who are not wanting in intelligence upon other matters. Incapacitated by its optical 

 conformation from going abroad in the daytime, the Whip-poor-will carefully conceals 

 itself in the most retired and shady parts of deep woods. There it remains perfectly 

 silent through the day, seldom disturbed by the steps of man. In these retreats this 

 bird is rarely met with, and naturalists have but few opportunities to study its habits. 

 The sight of the Whip-poor-will, like that of nocturnal Owls, appears not to be 

 adapted to the light of day. Its chief food is nocturnal insects, obtainable only by 

 twilight, or at night ; it is therefore seldom seen abroad in the daytime, and then 

 only in dark or cloudy weather. The habits both of the preceding species and the 

 Whip-poor-will, so far as they have been observed, are closely identical with each 

 other. Like the Chuck-wills-widow, the Whip-poor-will, if its eggs or young are 

 handled, will remove them to another part of the woods. Wilson relates that, 

 having once accidentally met with a young bird of this species, in passing through 

 a wood, he stopped and sketched it. Returning to the same place in search of 

 a pencil he had left behind him, after a short absence, the young bird was nowhere 

 to be found. It had in the mean while, we are left to infer, been conveyed away by 



