BIRDS OF MANY FAMILIES 213 



is rarely seen at all, but is well known by his 

 weird call, a cry so strange and so emphatic that 

 it is most startling, especially when heard near 

 at hand in the deepening twilight. When the 

 songsters have closed their evening praise ser- 

 vice and settled quietly on some safe perch for 

 the night, this nocturnal wanderer sallies forth 

 for his period of activity. Low over bush-grown 

 pasture or old field on noiseless wing he courses 

 back and forth, picking up a meal of insects as 

 he goes. 



At intervals he lights and takes up his metal- 

 lic call ''' whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will,^^ wholly 

 unlike any other sound in Nature, so strange and 

 characteristic that it will never be mistaken. 

 This alternate feeding and *' whipping" is kept 

 up for several hours, then the bird rests for a 

 time. Toward morning, before the other birds 

 are astir, he sets out again and seeks his break- 

 fast, finally with the coming of dawn settling 

 down for the day. 



The Whippoorwill always perches, or rather 

 crouches, lengthwise of limb, fence rail, rock, or 

 other object, because its small, weak feet do not 

 seem strong enough to enable it to cling to a 

 perch as do other birds. Its colors are such as to 

 harmonize with its chosen surroundings, from 

 which fact the bird seems to derive a deep sense 

 of security, for you may approach very close 

 before it will seek safety in flight. The general 

 color is reddish-brown, mottled with grayish- 

 black and dusky white. The most conspicuous 

 mark is a white band, or crescent, across the 

 throat; the tip end half of the outer tail feathers 



