THE WHIPPOORWILL. 121 



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 a tree. 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, SWAINSON. 



SWAINSON. Fauna Bor. Amer. (1831) 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. 



