834 



N Y C T I C H E L I D O N. 



the head of a brown orange or burnt colour ; the 

 wings, when shut, reach scarcely to the middle of the 

 tail, and are elegantly spotted with very light and 

 dark brown, but are entirely without the large spot 

 of white which distinguishes the night hawk ; chin 

 black, streaked with brown ; a narrow semicircular 

 line of white passes across the throat; breast and belly 

 irregularly mottled, and streaked with black and yel- 

 low ochre ; the legs and feet are of a light purplish 

 flesh colour, seamed with white, the former feathered 

 before nearly to the feet ; the two exterior toes are 

 joined to the middle one, as far as the joint, by a 

 broad membrane ; the inner edge of the middle claw 

 is pectinated, and, from the circumstance of its being 

 frequently found with small portions of down adhering 

 to the teeth, is probably employed as a comb to rid 

 the plumage of its head of vermin, this being the 

 principal and almost only part so infested in all 

 birds." 



This singularly noisy species is migratory in the 

 United States, where it is first heard about the middle 

 or toward the end of April. Its notes are as familiar 

 to the people there as those of the cuckoo are in 

 Britain. They resemble as nearly as possible the 

 words " whip-poor-will," the middle one short, and 

 the first and last very loud. At first they are heard 

 from the depths of woods in lonely places ; but they 

 soon approach near dwelling-houses, and make such 

 a noise during morning and evening twilight, and all 

 night long if the moon shines brightly, and its cla- 

 mour is so loud, that strangers find difficulty in sleep- 

 ing. The inhabitants, however, welcome it as the 

 harbinger of good weather, much in the same way as 

 we welcome the cuckoo. As the season advances, it 

 gets very familiar, and perches close by the house, or 

 even on the house-top. From its singular voice, and 

 the twilight gloom in which that voice is uttered, the 

 ignorant regard it as a harbinger of some calamity to 

 the family upon whose dwelling it takes its post. 

 We must not be surprised at this, either on the part 

 of the native Indians or on the part of the more 

 ignorant European settlers ; for there are still many 

 parts of our own country where a magpie, perching 

 on the top of the house, throws the whole family into 

 the greatest apprehensions. When two or more 

 male birds are near to each other, which is often 

 the case, they sing in rivalry, as most songsters do ; 

 and when they raise the pitch of their voices, they 

 also hurry the time. Wilson thus describes their 

 manners . " They fly low, not more than a few feet 

 from the surface, skimming about the house and be- 

 fore the door, alighting on the wood pile, or settling 

 on the roof. Towards midnight they generally be- 

 come silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they 

 are heard with little intermission till morning. If 

 there be a creek near, with high precipitous bushy 

 banks, they are sure to be found in such situations. 

 During the day they sit in the most retired, solitary, 

 and deep shaded parts of the woods, generally on 

 high ground, where they repose in silence. When 

 disturbed they rise within a few feet, sail low and 

 slowly through the woods for thirty or forty yards, 

 and generally settle on a low branch or on the ground. 

 Their sight appears deficient during the day, as, like 

 owls, they seem then to want that vivacity for which 

 they are distinguished in the morning and evening 

 twilight. They are rarely shot at or molested ; and, 

 from being thus transiently seen in the obscurity of 

 dusk, or in the deep umbrage of the woods, no won- 



der their particular markings of plumage should be 

 so little known, or that they should be confounded 

 with the night hawk, which in general appearance 

 they so much resemble. The female begins to lay 

 about the second week in May, selecting for the pur- 

 pose the most unfrequented part of the wood, often 

 where some brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, &c., had 

 been lying, and always in a dry situation. The eggs 

 are deposited on the ground, or on the leaves, not 

 the slightest appearance of a nest being visible. 

 They are usually two in number, in shape much re- 

 seinbling those of the night hawk, but having the 

 ground colour much darker and more thickly marbled 

 with dark olive." 



Most European describers of birds have confounded 

 this species with two others, from which it is distinct 

 as well in its manners as in its haunts. Dry and ele- 

 vated places are the chief resort of this one, whereas 

 the others prefer grounds of a different character. 

 The song of the male does not continue above a 

 month or five weeks, for it ceases as soon as the 

 young are hatched ; though it begins again, but more 

 feebly, and of shorter duration, in September, before 

 the birds begin to move southwards. The young, 

 while incapable of flight, conceal themselves by lying 

 motionless among the clods or the withered leaves ; 

 and the following anecdote will show that, as is the 

 case with most birds which leave their young on the 

 ground, the female has recourse to a good deal of 

 stratagem in order to entice supposed enemies away 

 from them. " In traversing the woods one day, in 

 the early part of June," says Wilson, " along the brow 

 of a rocky declivity, a whip-poor-will rose from my 

 feet, and fluttered along, sometimes prostrating her- 

 self, and beating the ground with her wings as if ex- 

 piring. Aware of her purpose, I stood still and began 

 to examine the space immediately around me for the 

 eggs or young, one or other of which I was certain 

 must be near. After a long search, to my mortifica- 

 tion, I could find neither ; and was just going to 

 abandon the spot, when I perceived somewhat like a 

 slight mouldiness among the leaves, and, on stooping 

 down, discovered it to be a young whip-poor-will, 

 seemingly asleep, as its eyelids were nearly closed, 

 or perhaps this might only be to protect its tender 

 eyes from the glare of day. I sat down by it on the 

 leaves, and drew it as it then appeared. It was pro- 

 bably not a week old. All the while I was thus 

 engaged, it neither moved its body nor opened its 

 eyes more than half, and I left it as I found it. After 

 I had walked about a quarter of a mile from the spot, 

 recollecting that I had left a pencil behind, I returned 

 and found my pencil, but the young bird was gone." 



C. Carolinensis Chuck-will's- Widow. This species 

 is not very correctly named the Carolina goatsucker ; 

 for it extends into South America, though it never 

 reaches the northern parts of the United States in its 

 summer migrations. It appears rather earlier than 

 the last-mentioned species ; and though its note is 

 different, and it is a much larger bird than whip-poor- 

 will, they haunt nearly the same sort of places. This 

 one, however, keeps more constantly to the woods 

 than the former, and therefore is less frequently seen. 

 The eggs are deposited on the ground. They are 

 two in number, and of equal thickness at both ends, 

 as is the case with the eggs of all this genus. They 

 are about the size of pigeons' eggs, of a dull olive, 

 mottled with darker markings. This is the one which, 

 in colour at least, most resembles the European goat 



