EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL 169 



occasional egg has large, irregular blotches of this color. Overlying 

 these pale gray markings, or scattered among them, are often many 

 small spots or fine dots of various browns, such as "cinnamon- 

 brown," "tawny," or "tawny-olive." An occasional egg is almost 

 immaculate. 



The measurements of 50 eggs average 29.0 by 21.3 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 31.5 by 21.0, 30.48 by 

 22.86, 20.48 by 21.34, and 28.45 by 20.07 millmieters.] 



Young. — The little whippoorwill chick, hatching out from an in- 

 visible Q,gg^ finds itself lying on the ground, with dead leaves all 

 about. The dead leaves look like the chick, and the chick looks 

 like the dead leaves; no one can tell them apart; practically the 

 chick is a dead leaf, and, although hatched, it is still invisible, just 

 as it was when hidden in the egg. 



Some birds depend on speed for safety, or on agility or strength, 

 but the whippoorwill relies cliiefly on not being seen. Safety comes 

 to the whippoorwill in dim light, half shadows, and the faint, con- 

 fusing obscurity of dusk, and among these, on the borderland of 

 invisibility, the whippoorwill lives all its days. 



Nests of the whippoorwill are found almost always by accident. 

 The old bird starts up from near the observer's feet, and a search — 

 sometimes a long one — reveals the eggs or the young birds. For 

 example, A. Dawes DuBois (1911) says: 



The first nest was found on May 16, 1908, in a strip of woods of medium 

 size trees, thickly undergrown, on a high bank of the Sangamon River 

 [Illinois]. The ground was well carpeted with dried oak leaves. Our first 

 intimation of Whippoorwills in this place was the sudden appearance of an 

 adult bird fluttering along the ground in front of us, apparently with a 

 broken wing. We stopped at once and while my companion stood to mark 

 the place, I followed the bird a short distance. She fluttered along noise- 

 lessly, feigning serious injury and leading me away from the nest as rapidly 

 as I could be induced to follow. 



A search revealed the nest within a pace of the spot we had marked. It 

 contained one egg and the broken shell of another which gave evidence of 

 having hatched. Although I stooped to examine the broken shell I did not 

 see the bird that had hatched from it until my companion called my attention 

 to it. The little fellow was crouched, motionless, upon the brown leaves not 

 six inches from the broken egg-shell. 



H. E. Tuttle (1911) speaks thus of the young birds: "The newly 

 hatched birds were very attractive-looking little chicks so long as they 

 kept their mouths shut. They were a uniform buff color, which 

 matched well with the leaves, and the instant their mother left them 

 they each ran in opposite directions and squatted. In this maneuver 

 the old bird seemed to aid them materially by the vigorous flip which 

 she gave them as she rose, often tumbling them over on their backs." 



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