'TWIXT COLD AND HEAT. 67 



the whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus Yirginianus) arrives, 

 it is time to go bare-footed ; that is, the spring season 

 is pretty far advanced, and sufficiently warm to admit 

 of laying aside the use of shoes, without much incon- 

 venience. This adage originated in the days of greater 

 simplicity than the present (1T91). Some of our Indians 

 believe that this bird is a messenger sent to call their 

 attention to the planting of the ground. Accordingly, 

 upon the arrival of the whip-poor-will, they say to one 

 another, ' The wee-co-lis is come : it is planting-time ;' 

 and, while the bird is uttering the sound of whip-poor- 

 will, or wee-co-lis, they will repeat the word 'hackibeck,' 

 which is, ' plant the ground.' " 



This holds good to-day. The whip-poor-will cannot, or 

 will not, accommodate itself to circumstances, and either 

 the weather must be warm or the bird tarries southward ; 

 and if, as is so apt to be the case, a cold rain-storm occurs 

 in May, these birds leave their haunts and return to 

 warmer quarters. At least, they disappear, and I can- 

 not believe, even temporarily, hibernate, as the writer 

 quoted considers as possible, but not actually demon- 

 strated. 



Unfortunately the whip-poor-wills are comparatively 

 scarce, and the opportunity of closely observing them 

 does not offer. They, like their cousins the night-hawks, 

 have greatly decreased in numbers during the past half- 

 century. 



Let us return and consider the scattered April flowers 

 that bloom on the beautiful north bank of Poaetquis- 

 sings. Under favorable circumstances, the delicate 

 flowers of the yellow corydalis, a cousin of the ear- 



