WHIP-POOR-WILL. 467 



WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



Antrostomus vociferus. 



Char. Gape extremely wide; rictal bristles without lateral filaments. 

 General color dull gray brown, mottled with black, white, and tawny; 

 throat with collar of white or tawny ; outer tail-feathers partly white ; 

 under parts gray mottled with black. Length 9^4 to 10 inches. 



JVest. In dense woods or shady dells ; eggs laid on the ground or 

 amid dry leaves 



Eggs. 2; white or buffy marked brown and lavender ; 1.12 X 0.85. 



This remarkable and well-known nocturnal bird arrives in 

 the Southern States in March, and in the Middle States about 

 the close of April or the beginning of May, and proceeds in 

 its vernal migrations along the Atlantic States to the centre 

 of Massachusetts, being seldom seen beyond the latitude of 

 43° ; and yet in the interior of the continent, according to 

 Vieillot, it continues as far as Hudson Bay^ and was heard, as 

 usual, by Mr. Say at Pembino, in the high latitude of 49°. In 

 all this vast intermediate space, as far south as Natchez on the 

 Mississippi, and the interior of Arkansas, these birds familiarly 

 breed and take up their temporary residence. Some also pass 

 the winter in the interior of East Florida, according to xA.udu- 

 bon. In the eastern part of Massachusetts, however, they are 

 uncommon, and always affect sheltered, wild, and hilly situa- 

 tions, for which they have in general a preference. About 

 the same time that the sweetly echoing voice of the Cuckoo is 

 first heard in the north of Europe, issuing from the leafy 

 groves as the sure harbinger of the flowery month of May, 

 arrives amongst us, in the shades of night, the mysterious 

 Whip-poor-will. The well-known saddening sound is first 

 only heard in the distant forest, re-echoing from the lonely glen 

 or rocky cliff ; at length the oft-told solitary tale is uttered from 

 the fence of the adjoining field -or garden, and sometimes the 

 slumbering inmates of the cottage are serenaded from the low 

 roof or from some distant shed. Superstition, gathering terror 

 from every extraordinary feature of nature, has not suffered 

 this harmless nocturnal babbler to escape suspicion, and his 



