134 THP. FEATHERED TKIBES. 



through the other caverns which extended in various directions. The Indians enter 

 these caves once a year, armed with poles, with which they destroy the greater part of 

 the nests. They also kill many thousands of the birds, and the old ones, as they defend 

 their broods, hover around the heads of their assailants, and utter the most melancholy 

 cries. 



^^'HIP- POOR-WILL. * 



An interesting species of this family is the whip-poor-will — a name which it has 

 obtained from the peci.diarity of its cry. It is a migratory bird, visiting the United States 

 on the approach of spring, preferring the more barren districts of Kentucky, and the 

 country through which the Alleghany ridges pass, but it is also found in the thinly 

 wooded portions of the middle districts. There it may be seen skimming along in the 

 moonlight by quick tiu'ns and zigzag evolutions in pursuit of insects, and retreats at the 

 retuin of the first beams of the sun to repose on some fallen trunk, or log, or even oi^ the 

 ground. 



The songs of these birds mayi^be heard at every twilight, and, should there be moon- 

 light, with only occasional intermissions till break of day. Audubon tells us that 

 hundreds arc often heard at the same time in diiferent parts of the woods ; and he adds, 

 that when you are told that the notes of this bird may be heard at the distance of several 

 hundred yards, some idea may be formed of the pleasure which every lover of nature 

 must feel during the time when the chorus is continued. 



The nest of the whip-poor-will consists merely of the matted luxuriance of herbage 

 and withered leaves which may be found in any retired thicket. The young are covered 

 with dovm, having a tint which makes them resemble little mouldy patches, as if a bit 

 of decayed wood lay among the leaves. AVilson one day was passing along the brow of 

 a rocky declivity when one of these birds arose from his feet and fluttered along, some- 

 times prostrating herself and beating the ground with her wings, as if just expiring. 

 Aware of her purpose, he stood stiU and examined the ground, in order to find the nest 

 from which she was trying to divert his attention ; but after a long search he was just 

 about to abandon the pursuit, when he perceived something Hke a slight mouldiness 

 among the withered leaves, and discovered it to be a young whip-poor-will seemingly asleep, 

 and about a week old. He left it where he found it ; but having occasion to return to 

 the same spot in about ten minutes afterwards for a pencil he had dropped, he discovered 

 the pencil, but the young bird had been removed. It is believed that this was effected 

 by the parent. 



"In the state of Kentucky," says Wilson, " I first heard this bird on the 14th of 

 April, near the town of Danville. Its notes, from the ideas which are natural])'- associated 

 with them, seem like the voice of an old friend, and iire listened to bj' almost all wi^h 

 great interest. At first, they issue from some retired part of the woods, the glen, 

 or mountain; in a few evenings perhaps we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the 

 garden-fence, the road before the door, and even from the roof of the dwelling-liouse, 

 long after the family have retired to rest. Some of the more ignorant and super- 

 stitious consider this near approach as forboding no good to the family — notliing less 

 than sickness, misfortune, or deatli, to some of its members. These visits, however, so 

 often occur without any bad consequences, that this superstitious dread seems on the 

 decline." 



The favourite places of resort for these birds arc on dry, high situations ; in low, 

 marshy tracts of country they are seldom heard. It is probably on this account, tliat 



• Caprimulgus VociferuE. — Wilson. 



