VOL, 



jfy"] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 553 



lu cold, stormy weather they roost on the gronml amougst the long grass at the 

 root of a stump or tree. Oa the 29th Septeuiber I put several out of such places just 

 at dark. They were very loth to leave, my dog almost jumping ou them before they 

 would get out. (Nash, in MSS.) 



142. Autrostomus vociferus. Whip-poor-will. 



Coinmou summer resident in woods and bluffs. In numbers at Pem- 

 bina (Ooues). Pembina (Lay). Dufferin : Arrived May 8, 1874 (Daw- 

 son). Winnipeg: Summer resident; abundant (nine). Its voice is known 

 at lied River Settlement (Blakiston). Ossowa: Breeding (Wagner). 

 Oak Point : 1884 ; first heard May 8 ; next heard May 12; heard again 

 on 13; is common and breeds liere (Small). Portage la Prairie: Com- 

 mon summer resident ; arrives about May 20 ; departs early in Sep- 

 tember; found young partially fledged as late as July 29 (Nash). 

 Abundant in the north ; Manitoba House, Junel7, 1881; Grand Valley 

 (Macoun). Carberry: Common summer resident: breeding; Long 

 River (Thompson). Two Rivers : 1885, first heard, one, May 21; next, 

 May 24; fairly rare (Criddle). Brandon : May 25, 1887 (Wood). Shell 

 River: 1885, first heard, one, May 20 ; common all summer; remains 

 until August (Calcutt). Qu'Appelle : Occasional (Guernsey). 



On May 17, 1882, at Long River Gorge, a partly wooded country, the 

 best we have seen yet, heard a number of whip-poor-wills chanting their 

 familiar strain towards night. This is the first notice of their arrival. 

 June G, went late in the evening to the eastern slough to observe the 

 two nightjars. Both of these, as well ns the mosquitoes, were in full 

 force. But as the shades of night closed in the night-hawks that hith- 

 erto had been chiefly noticeable became less noisy, and their cousins, 

 the whip-poor-wills, became the principal performers in the full concert. 

 How many there were it would be hard to say, but certainly not less than 

 a dozen appeared to be in the near neighborhood, and the chorus of 

 voices loudly reiterating " wliip-poor will" was always a full one of at 

 least three voices. As I lay in the grass and listened to these various 

 voices of the night I attempted a clumsy imitation of the notes "whip- 

 poor-will," and was pleased to see one of these birds come flying around 

 me closer and closer until at length it hovered but 18 inches from my 

 face in the grass. For a moment or two he poised and inspected me; 

 then flying away he returned immediately with another, his mate prob- 

 ably, and the pair skimmed about me once or twice ; then the wing mo- 

 tion, which I could barely discern in the gloom, ceased in the vicinity 

 of a certain stump close at hand. At once I concluded that the bird 

 had alighted, and then the calmness of the night was shocked by the 

 usual tragedy. 



The refrain is almost too well known to need description. It consists 

 of three, or sometimes four, notes, "whip-poor-will," or "ah-whip-poor- 

 will." The " ah " is very faint at best; the "whip "and "poor" are 

 rich and smooth, but with an accent on the former • the " will," uttered 



