QUICK] A WHIPPOORWILL OF NEW ENGLAND 145 



• I did not have to wait long for in early morning I was awakened 

 by the cry at my window: 



"When the faintest flush of morning 



Overtints the distant hills, 

 If you waken, if you listen 



You may hear the whip-poor-will, 

 Like an echo from the darkness 



Strangely wild across the glen 

 Sound the notes of his finale 



And the woods are still again," 



In looking out I saw him drift by like a shadow and with absolute 

 silence, his soft plumage making his flight as noiseless as a screech 

 owl's. His course also was low and wavering like an owl's and as a 

 matter of fact he is often taken for one of that family. As Chap- 

 mai:i remarks, "the silence with which he risq^ in front of one's face 

 and flies away is fully as startling as the overwhelming whirr of a 

 grouse's wings." 



Although I have never seen this bird in the light of day my 

 general impression of it is a mottled, ragged dark brown bird with 

 white tips on the outer tail feathers which are conspicuous during 

 flight. Naturalists who have seen this bird describe him as queer 

 looking with front toes tied together by a kind of webbing and 

 almost no hind toes at all. His mouth, too is almost as odd as his 

 toes, the beak being short and depressed and the gape enormous, 

 opening from ear to ear and bordered at the comers by recurved 

 bristles. The plumage is blended brownish with brownish gray, 

 the back flecked with orcherous and buffy. Across the breast is a 

 white band and the tail has broad white flash color only seen during 

 flight. 



The food of the whip-poor-wills consists entirely of night flying 

 insects principally moths and beetles. Mr. Eaton has taken 36 

 full grown moths from the stomach of a single bird which was killed 

 early in the evening, indicating that within an hour and a half he 

 had killed and devoured these full grown moths, each one of which 

 contained hundreds of eggs. Thus it is evident that the whip-poor- 

 will is of untold value to the forester. 



The nest of whip-poor-will or rather its pair of eggs, for it makes no 

 nest, is found beneath the dense low hanging foliage of the under- 

 growth in the forest. The eggs are two in number, dull white in 

 color with spots and blotches of brown, drab, and lavender. 



The whip-poor-will prefers the wilder swamps, gulleys and hill- 

 sides, to a more settled district and it was in such a location that 



