THE GOAT-SUCKER. 83 



of the parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just 

 as cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I 

 assure you, that, as my neighbours were assembled 

 in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where 

 we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and 

 settled on the cross of that little straw edifice, and 

 began to chatter, and continued his note for many 

 minutes ; and we were all struck with wonder to 

 find that the organs of that little animal, when put 

 in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole 

 building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small 

 squeak, repeated four or five times ; and I have 

 observed that to happen when the cock has been 

 pursuing the hen in a toying manner through the 

 boughs of a tree.* 



* Mr. White's excellent description of this curious species, 

 in the present and subsequent letters, is only equalled by 

 those of a most accurate American ornithologist, whose deli- 

 neations of the manners of the different species that occurred 

 to him, ought to be examined as models by every describing 

 naturalist. Mr. Wilson thus beautifully describes the calling 

 of the Whip-poor-will of the Americans : " On or about the 

 25th of April, if the season be not uncommonly cold, the 

 Whip-poor-will is heard in Pennsylvania, in the evening, as 

 the dusk of twilight commences, or in the morning, as soon 

 as dawn has broke. The notes of this solitary bird, from 

 the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem like 

 the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost all 

 with great interest. At first they issue from some retired 

 part of the woods, the glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, 

 perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden 

 fence, the road before the door, and even the roof of the 

 dwelling-house, hours after the 'family have retired to rest. 

 Some of the more ignorant and superstitious consider this 

 near approach as foreboding no good to the family, nothing 

 less than the sickness, misfortune, or death, of some of its 

 members. Every morning and evening his shrill and rapid 

 repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods ; and when 

 two or more are calling at the same time, as is often the case 

 G 2 



