WHIPPOORWILL. 



ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFEEUS. 



NO bird in New England is more readily known by 

 his song than is the whippoorwilL In the cour- 

 ageous repetition of his name he accents the first and last 

 syllables, the stronger accent falling on the last ; always 

 measuring his song with the same rhythm, while very 

 considerably varying the melody — which latter fact is 

 discovered only by most careful attention. Plain, simple, 

 and stereotyped as his song appears, marked variations 

 are introduced in the course of it. The whippoorwill 

 uses nearly all the intervals in the natural scale, even 

 the octave. I have never detected a chromatic tone. 

 Perhaps the favorite song form is this : — 



An eccentric part of the whippoorwill's musical per- 

 formance is the introduction of a "cluck" immediately 

 after each "whippoorwill;" so that the song is a regular, 

 unbroken, rhythmical chain from beginning to end. One 

 must be near the singer to hear the " cluck ; " otherwise 

 he will mark a rest in its place. 



