THE WHIPPOORWILL. ot 
often where some brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, &c., had been 
lying, and always on a dry situation.” 
The Whippoorwill constructs no nest, but lays its eggs, 
which are two in number, in a slight hollow which it 
scratches in the earth, usually near a rock, or fallen trunk 
of atree. These eggs are of an elliptical form, being as 
large at one end as at the other; their ground-color is a 
delicate creamy-white, with blotches, lines, and spots of 
different shades of light-brown and lavender: taken alto- 
gether, it is one of the handsomest eggs found in New Eng- 
land. The length of several specimens before me varies 
from 1.21 to 2.27 inches, breadth from .75 to .79 inch. The 
bird commences laying about the last week in May, and the 
period of incubation is fourteen days. 
_ The young are soon able to walk, and in a very few days 
can run with considerable speed; and they hide with such 
adroitness that it is a work of no little difficulty to capture 
them. The female, when her young are discovered, imme- 
diately throws herself before the intruder, counterfeiting 
lameness so well, that, unless he is well acquainted with 
the habits of birds, he will quickly be misled into following 
her. As soon as the young birds are able to shift for them- 
selves, they are turned adrift by their parents, and are seen 
only singly, or at most in pairs, during the remainder of 
their stay. By the latter part of August, or seldom later 
than the 10th of September, all of them depart for the 
South, the old males remaining a few days later; uttering, 
occasionally, their song, but always in the woods, or in 
localities far removed from human habitation. 
CHORDEILES, Swarnson, 
Swatnson. Fauna Bor. Amer. (1881) 496. 
Bill very small, the gape with very short, feeble bristles; wings very long and 
pointed, with the first quill nearly or quite equal to the second, and the primaries not 
emarginated on the inner edge; tail long, slightly forked in the North-American 
species; plumage rather compact. 
