WHIP-POOR-WILL 



G26S 



WHISKY INSURRECTION 



WHIP-POOR-WILL, a North American bird 

 of the goatsucker family, with wide, bristly 

 mouth, soft plumage and silent flight. It re- 

 ceived its name because of its weird, whistling 

 cry, "whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will." It is a 



Where deep and misty shadows float 

 In forest's depths is heard thy note. 

 Like a lost spirit, earthbound still, 

 Art thou, mysterious whip-poor-will. 



LEBARON: The W hip-Poor-Will. 



night bird, haunting thick woods and devouring 

 great numbers of the large-bodied moths, but 

 never appearing in the open and about cities 

 as does its near relative, the nighthawk. It 

 rests by day, on the ground or perched length- 

 wise on the limb of a tree, its mottled feathers 

 making it hard to discover. The whip-poor- 

 will breeds from the Gulf states northward to 

 Manitoba and New Brunswick, wintering in 

 Florida and southward. It makes no nest, but 

 lays its eggs among the leaves on the ground, 

 or in hollows in rocks or stumps. They are 

 two in number and' dull white in color, deli- 

 cately and obscurely marked with lilac and 

 brown. If her young are disturbed, the mother 

 carries them away in her mouth, as a cat does 

 a kitten. See NIGHTHAWK. 



WHIRL 'POOL, an eddy or vortex of water. 

 A spinning motion is imparted to water by the 

 striking of the current against a bank of pecul- 

 iar formation, by the meeting of two currents 

 or by the action of the wind. The famous 

 whirlpool in the gorge below the falls of the 

 Niagara River was caused by the wearing away 

 of a side basin out i of the line of the river's 

 course. Rocks and opposing tides form whirl- 

 pools in the ocean. The Maelstrom, off the 

 coast of Norway, and the Charybdis, between 

 Sicily and Italy, are formed by tidal currents 

 (see SCYLLA). In calm weather they are not 

 dangerous to ships, but their violence is much 

 increased by storms. 



WHIRL'WIND, a circular or spiral move- 

 ment in the air caused by the sudden rising of 

 an overheated layer of surface air into the 

 heavy, cooler atmosphere above. These winds 



occur most frequently in the deserts, where the 

 sun beats down on the dry sand all day long, 

 heating the air near the ground to a very high 

 temperature. The motion of the air as it rises 

 can be seen, because it often carries sand and 

 dust more than 1,000 feet above the earth. It 

 has been estimated that, during four days of 

 such winds in March, 1901, nearly 2,000,000 tons 

 of dust from the Sahara fell on Central Eu- 

 rope, the greater part reaching the ground south 

 of the Alps. In the oceans of the tropics, the 

 air above the water may become heated in 

 much the same way, and when it rises water- 

 spouts (which see) are formed. The term whirl- 

 wind is sometimes applied also to such cyclonic 

 storms as tornadoes, typhoons and hurricanes. 

 See CYCLONE. 



WHISKY, whis' ki, an intoxicating liquor 

 distilled from malt, grains or potatoes. The 

 whisky produced by the Scotch and the Irish 

 is malt whisky, and it is made chiefly from 

 malted barley. In the United States, whisky is 

 usually made from various grains, chiefly corn 

 and rye, to which a small proportion of malt 

 is added. The manufacture of this liquor was 

 forbidden by law September 1, 1917, for the 

 period of the War of the Nations, and soon was 

 permanently prohibited by the ratification of 

 the Eighteenth Amendment. 



In the process of manufacture corn, rye, 

 wheat or potatoes are boiled until a mash is 

 formed; malt is then added to convert the 

 starch into sugar. Yeast is added to produce 

 fermentation, and the process is continued un- 

 til the sugar has been converted into alcohol. 

 The alcohol is then separated by distillation 

 (which see). The chief kinds of grain whisky 

 are Bourbon and rye. The principal ingredi- 

 ent in rye whisky is rye, as the name indicates ; 

 Bourbon whisky is made of corn. Grain whis- 

 kies can be produced more cheaply than malt 

 whiskies, but they are stronger and less palata- 

 ble, unless thoroughly ripened. 



WHISKY INSURRECTION, insur ek' shun, 

 an uprising in Western Pennsylvania in 1794, 

 growing out of an excise tax levied by act of 

 Congress. The settlers of the region were largely 

 engaged in making whisky, which, for lack of 

 transportation facilities, could be shipped to 

 market more easily than the bulky grain; the 

 tax was a heavy burden, as the people were 

 chiefly dependent on whisky manufacture for 

 their support. They exhibited a strong feel- 

 ing of ill will towards the revenue collectors, 

 and resisted all efforts to collect the tax. The 

 rioters were so numerous that on September 



