THINGS TO HEAR THIS SPRING 



89 



f .toward the earth, when, just before hitting the 

 ground, upward he swoops, at the same instant 

 iinaking a weird booming sound, a kind of hollow 

 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 



I birds dive close to your head on a lonely dusky 

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

 jour 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 to hip-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! 

 hiust 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 \ 



i chapter named "Woodcock Vespers." To hear the-: 



\ 



