292 The Whip-poor-will 



batch into caterpillars and destroy the leaves of shade and fruit-trees. 

 May-beetles and leaf-eating beetles are destroyed by it also. In truth, 

 fortunate, indeed, is the grower of grain, or the raiser of fruit who, 

 during the spring and summer nights, has one or more pairs oi these 

 birds about his place, for all during the hours when the farmer sleeps 

 the Whip-poor-will is busy ridding his place of these harmful insects. 



Mr. Ingersoll says: "They never regularly sweep through the upper 

 air as does the Nighthawk, but seek their food near the ground by leap- 

 ing after it in short, erratic flights. They have a way of balancing them- 

 selves near a tree-trunk or barn- wall, picking ants and other small prov- 

 ender off the bark ; and even hunt for worms and beetles on the ground, 

 turning over the leaves to root them out. It is not until their first hunger 

 has been assuaged that one hears that long, steady 

 Insect Catching chanting for which the bird is distinguished, and 

 which, as a sustained effort, is perhaps unequalled 

 elsewhere. . . . It is an ordinary feat for him to 'whip-poor-will' with 

 two or three hundred strokes in unbroken succession." 



In the early autumn, the Whip-poor-wills simply disappear without 

 warning. As they reappear far to the south, we know, of course, that 

 they have migrated, but when did they go and how? Did they journey 

 over the hundreds of miles of intervening space by short flights, or did 

 they mount high in air, as do many small birds, and fly swiftly for long 

 hours at a time ? Did they go singly or in flocks ? These and other ques- 

 tions about this mysterious bird of the night remain to be answered fully. 

 Perhaps some young reader of this paper will grow up to be a naturalist 

 who will explain these things' more fully to the less observant students of 

 birds. 



No one should ever kill one of these useful birds. Its great value 

 . to mankind has become generally recognized in recent years, and the laws 

 of all States where the bird is found provide that anyone who kills a 

 Whip-poor-will shall be fined or imprisoned. 



Classification and Distribution 



The Whip-poor-will belongs to the Order Macrochires and Family Capri 

 mulgidae; and its scientific name is Antrostomus rociferus vociferus. It ranges 

 through eastern North America, breeding from the St. Lawrence Valley and Nova 

 Scotia south to northern Georgia and Louisiana, as far west as the border of the 

 Plains; it winters from the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast to British Honduras. 

 The only other subspecies is macromystox, of Mexico and the adjacent border of 

 the United States. 



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