THE WHIP-POOR-WILL. 95 



notes of this solitary bird, from the ideas which 

 are naturally associated with them, seem like the 

 voice of an old friend, and are listened to by 

 almost all with great interest. At first they 

 issue from some retired part of the woods, the 

 glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, perhaps, 

 we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the 

 garden-fence, the road before the door, and 

 even from the roof of the dwelling-house, long 

 after the family have retired to rest. Some of 

 the more ignorant and superstitious, consider 

 this near approach as foreboding to the family 

 nothing less than misfortune, sickness, or death 

 to some of its members ; these visits, however, 

 occur so often without any bad consequences, 

 that this superstitious dread seems rather on the 

 decline. 



He is now a regular acquaintance. Every 

 morning and evening his shrill and rapid repeti- 

 tions are heard from the adjoining woods ; and 

 when two or more are calling out at the same 

 time, as is often the case in the pairing season, 

 and at no great distance from each other, the 

 noise, mingling with the echoes from the moun- 

 tains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts 

 of the country where these birds are numerous, 

 find it almost impossible for some time to sleep ; 



