ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS : WHIPPOORWILL. 5 I 



The bird may be in the brush where it has hidden during 

 the hours of light, or, on pinion as noiseless as that 

 of an owl, it may have stolen close to the house — so 

 close that the queer clicking sound which precedes its 

 lugubrious salute may be distinctly heard. It may even 

 drop unperceived upon the house-top, and cry out with 

 sudden vehemence in the middle of the night, perhaps 

 sending a shiver through those persons whose nervous 

 organization is susceptible of impressions ominous or 

 superstitious. Though wrong conclusions may be cor- 

 rected by observation and experience — those unanswer- 

 able pleaders in 

 the court of na- 

 ture to which all 

 cases of the kind 

 must be finally 

 referred without 

 possible appeal 



it should not '" '' Fig. 4. — Whh-poorwill. 



lessen our interest in the birds capable of such weird 

 effects ; but rather awaken new and more intelligent 

 cognitions of the beauty and harmony which nature's 

 every handiwork displays. No bird is more perfectly 

 adapted to the part sustained in animated nature 

 than the Whippoorwill, and not one can be presumed 

 to more thoroughly enjoy life. It has a number of 

 amiable and admirable traits, among which are its 

 parental affection and devotion, and its conjugal fidelity. 

 Though the young birds hatch covered with down, and 

 thus like chickens or sandpipers, which are able to run 

 about and feed themselves at birth, they are nevertheless 

 as weak and helpless as the naked occupants of a spar- 

 row's nest, requiring assiduous attention on the part of 



