FAMILY Caprimulgide. 
Wnip-poor-will Mary Johnston in the opening sentences 
Antrostomus of To Have and to Hold makes this 
om teapee , rather picturesque allusion to the Whip- 
May 1oth poor-will: ‘The birds that sing all day 
have hushed, and the Horned Owls, the monster 
frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fow1 
it be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) 
which we English call the Whip-poor-will, are yet 
silent.” 
There is something uncanny about the nocturnal bird 
and his strange song, particularly as he is always heard 
and seldom seen. When he 7s seen it is too late in the 
evening to get any idea of his colors. The white crescent 
on the neck, and the white outer tail feathers, are all 
that one can discern in the gathering dusk; the rest is a 
mixture of spotty browns. Head finely mottled with 
black and whitc; back ochre-buff finely marked with 
black ; wings dark brown with ruddy bars; tail barred 
with black and mottled with buff, but the end half of the 
three outer feathers conspicuously white ; a white band 
divides the throat and breast; lower parts cream-buff 
irreguiarly marked with dark sepia. The base of the bill 
is set; with long, stiff, curving bristles, and the mouth is 
extremely large although the bill appears very small. 
The foot is a failure so far as use and appearances go, 
the claws are tiny, and the long middle toe has a con- 
spicuous comb on the claw. One never sees the bird 
perched crosswise on anything ; whether it be a rock, 
the wood-pile, a log, or a fence rail, the position is in- 
variably the same—a squatting posture, the legs com- 
pletely hidden, and the body parallel with any narrow 
perch, such as a rail or a stick of wood! It is evident 
the creature would be unable to balance itself the other 
way. Asforits flight, thatis as silentas the night, there 
is not the rustle ofa feather. Itshares with the Owl and 
the Bat an absolutely noiseless wing. Egg, gray-white 
marked with lilac and gray. There are usually two, 
which are deposited on the leafy ground of woods or 
thickets. The female is similarly marked with the male, 
but cream buff displaces the white. ‘i 
The song is weird, there is nothing like it in all the 
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