618 SWALLOW TRIBE. 



ceives the passenger by prostrating herself along the 

 ground with beating wings, as if in her dying agony. 

 The activity of the young and old in walking, and the 

 absence of a nest, widely distinguishes these birds from 

 the Swallows, with which they are associated. A young 

 fledged bird of this species, presented to me, ran about 

 with great celerity, but refused to eat, and kept continu- 

 ally calling out at short intervals pe-ugh, in a low mourn- 

 ful note.* 



After the period of incubation, or about the middle of 

 June, the vociferations of the male cease, or are but 

 rarely given. Towards the close of summer, previously to 

 their departure, they are again occasionally heard, but 

 their note is now languid and seldom uttered ; and early 

 in September they leave us for the more genial climate 

 of tropical America, being there found giving their usual 

 lively cry in the wilds of Cayenne and Demerara. 

 They enter the United States early in April, but are 

 some weeks probably in attaining their utmost northern 

 limit. 



Their food appears to be large moths, beetles, grass- 

 hoppers, ants, and such insects as frequent the bark of 

 decaying timber. Sometimes, in the dusk, they will 

 skim within a few feet of a person, making a low chatter 

 as they pass ; they also, in common with other species, 

 flutter occasionally around the domestic cattle to catch 

 any insects which approach or rest upon them, and hence 

 the mistaken notion of their sucking goats, while they 

 only cleared them of molesting vermin. 



The Whip-poor-will is 9^ inches long, and 19 in the stretch of the 

 wings. The bill blackish ; nostrils tubular. Mouth very large, pale 

 flesh-color within, and beset along the sides with a number of long 



♦The resemblance of this tone to that of the Purple Martinis somewhat re- 

 markable. 



