listened to by almost all with 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 house, long after the family have retired 

 to rest. Some of the more ignorant and superstitious consider this near approach 

 as foreboding no good to the family — nothing less than sickness, misfortune, or 

 death to some of its members. These visits, however, so often occur without any 

 bad consequences, that this superstitious dread seems on the decline. 



He is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and evening his shrill 

 and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods, and when two or 

 more are calling out at the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, 

 and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes 

 from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country 

 where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep ; 

 while to those long acquainted with them the sound often serves as a lullaby to 

 assist their repose. 



These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have been 

 generally applied to them, ivhip-poor-zvill, the first and last syllables being uttered 

 with great emphasis, and the whole in about a second to each repetition ; but 

 when two or more males meet, their zvhip-poor-zvill altercations become much 

 more rapid and incessant, as if each were straining to overpower or silence the 

 other. When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. 

 At these times, as well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than a few 

 feet from the surface, skimming about the house and before the door, alighting 

 on the wood-pile, or settling on the roof. Toward midnight they generally be- 

 come silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are heard with little intermis- 

 sion till morning. If there be a creek near, with high precipitous bushy banks, 

 they are sure to be found in such situations. During the day they sit in the most 

 retired, solitary and deep-shaded parts of the woods, generally on high ground, 

 where they repose in silence. When disturbed, they rise within a few feet, 

 sail low and slowly through the woods for thirty or forty yards, and generally 

 settle on a low branch or on the ground. Their sight appears deficient during the 

 day, as, like owls, they seem then to want that vivacity for which they are dis- 

 tinguished in the morning and evening twilight. They are rarely shot at, or 

 molested ; and from being thus transiently seen in the obscurity of dusk, or in 

 the deep umbrage of the woods, no wonder their deep markings of plumage 

 should be so little known, or that they should be confounded with the nighthawk, 

 whom in general appearance they so much resemble. 



The female begins to lay about the second week in May, selecting for this 

 purpose the most unfrequented part of the wood, often where some brush, old 

 logs, heaps of leaves, etc., had been lying, and always on a dry situation. The 



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