200 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS EGGS. 



417. Whip-poor-will. Antrostomus vociferus. 



Range. North America east of the Plains; north to the southern parts of the 

 British possessions; winters along the Gulf coast and southward. 



This species is well known, by sound, in nearly all parts of its range, but 

 comparatively few ever observed the bird, and probably the greater number mis- 

 take the Nighthawk for this species. The two species can 

 readily be distinguished at a distance by the absence of 

 any pronounced white marking in the wings, and by the 

 white tips to the outer tail feathers in the present spec- 

 ies, while the Night Hawk has a prominent white band 

 across the tail, but the tip is black, and the tail slightly 

 forked. The Whip-poor-will, rarely leaves its place of 

 concealment before dark, and is never seen flying about 

 cities, as are the Nighthawks. In their pursuit of 

 insects, they glide like a shadow over fields and woods, 

 their soft plumage giving forth no sound as their wings cleave the air. Until 

 late at night, their whistling cry "whip-poor-will, ^-repeated at intervals, rings 

 out in all wooded hilly districts. Their two eggs are deposited on the ground 

 among dead leaves, generally in dense woods. They are grayish white or cream 

 color marbled with pale brown and gray, with fainter markings of lilac. Size 

 1.50 x .85. Data. Bristol Co., R. I., May 31, 1839. Two eggs on oak leaves^on 

 the ground in low woods. Collector, H. A. Stevens. 



[Creamy white,] 



Photo by Geo. S. Kiske. 

 NEST AND EGGS OF WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



