THINGS TO HEAR THIS SPRING 89 



toward the earth, when, just before hitting the 

 ground, upward he swoops, at the same instant 

 making a weird booming sound, a kind of hollow 



O O ' 



groan with his wings, as the wind rushes through 

 their large feathers. This diver through the dim 

 ocean of air is the nighthawk. Let one of the 

 birds dive close to your head on a lonely dusky 

 road, and your hair will try to jump out from under 

 your hat. 



The whip-poor-will's cry you all know. When you 

 hear one this spring, go out into the twilight and 

 watch for him. See him spring into the air, like a 

 strange shadow, for flies; count his whip-poor-wills 

 (he may call it more than a hundred times in as many 

 seconds !). But hear a circle of the birds, if possible, 

 calling through the darkness of a wood all around 



you ! 



V 



There is one strange bird song that is half song and 

 half dance that perhaps most of you may never be able 

 to hear and see ; but as it is worth going miles to hear, 

 and nights of watching to witness, I am going to set 

 it here as one of your outdoor tasks or feats: you 

 must hear the mating song of the woodcock. I have 

 described the song and the dance in " Roof and 

 Meadow," in the chapter called " One Flew East 

 and One Flew West." Mr. Bradford Torrey has an 

 account of it in his "Clerk of the Woods," in the 

 chapter named " Woodcock Vespers." To hear the 



