EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL 175 



irregular intervals of perhaps half a minute, several times and then, without 

 start or warning, it launched away into the air, starting off immediately at 

 full speed, with a drop that carried it in a large, even circle half way to the 

 ground, and then up on the same curve, to vanish in the gloom of the trees. 

 Then it appeared on the other side, swinging down on fixed wings in great 

 elliptical curves as though whirled from the end of a cord, perfectly silent 

 in flight and threading the dusky mazes of the tree tops with the utmost 

 confidence and precision. Here and there it rapidly wheeled, without an 

 apparent stroke of the wing, now coming into view in the lower arc of its 

 great circling, and then vanishing silently again on the upward sweep on the 

 other side. As suddenly as it started, it ceased in the middle of a swing and, 

 while the eyes vainly searched for the dark object along the continuation of 

 its course, it was seated again on the branch from which it first sprang, silent 

 and still. This was repeated several times, and then it was joined by another, 

 and the two circled about like great soft, gliding bats until the sky above 

 grew so dark that their movements could no longer be watched. 



Several writers mention the fearlessness of the whippoorwill, or 

 perhaps its failure to recognize man as a danger. For example, 

 Bendire (1895) quotes E. A. Mcllheimy, who says: "These birds are 

 very tame, for on two occasions, while sitting still in the twilight to 

 observe the movements of some Owls, I have had them come so close 

 that I could have caught them. On one occasion one lit on my knee, 

 and another on my foot as it was extended before me." And H. E. 

 Tuttle (1911) says: "Once I watched two males fighting and singing 

 at intervals on a fallen birch sapling. I was quite close to them, — 

 within a yard — ^but they did not seem to regard me as dangerous, 

 and when I tried to imitate the guttural noises they were making, 

 they circled round my head so closely that one touched me with his 

 wings. In the darkness I was probably no more than a charred 

 stump." 



C. W. G. Eifrig (1919) mentions "a unique experience" with a 

 whippoorwill, which, displaying unexpected aggressiveness, darted 

 repeatedly at his head. 



It has been surmised that the whippoorwill uses its capacious mouth 

 to carry its eggs, and even its young, out of danger when its nest 

 lias been discovered. There is no satisfactory evidence that the bird 

 employs its mouth in this way, but it has been seen, on two occasions 

 at least, carrying a young bird through the air held between its legs. 

 J. H. Bowles (1895) says: "I flushed a whippoorwill that rose with 

 a baby bird clutched firmly between her thighs^'' and Bendire (1895) 

 quotes H. W. Flint as follows : "I once, and once only, saw a female 

 (the male is never present at the nest) carry a young bird about 

 a rod, but can not say she used her bill, and don't think she did, but 

 I am almost sure the claws and legs only were used, as the young 

 was hugged close to the body." 



The whippoorwill is fond of taking dust baths. Wlien driving 

 after dark we sometimes catch sight of one as it starts up from its 



