The Bird that Whips Poor Will 



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tions " forming a regular comb, useful for 

 cleaning its long whiskers, and for keeping its 

 head free from the parasites to which a day- 

 sleeping bird must be especially exposed. 



The head of the whip-poor-will is, indeed, its 

 most peculiar part. Large, round, fluffy and 

 bewhiskered, its owl-like aspect (more striking 

 in some of the eared tropical species than in this 

 one) is enhanced by the great brown eyes that 

 bespeak the nocturnal habitant, and by the 

 diminutive, almost hidden beak, arched above 

 and up curved at the point below, forming a pair 

 of pincers well able to hold a struggling moth. 

 These pointed, horny lips are only the extrem- 

 ity, however, of a mouth and throat so capa- 

 cious that when they are opened it seems as 

 though the head were split in halves ; and it is to 

 this great mouth, quite big enough to take in 

 the teat of a goat, coupled with their habit of 

 leaping about the cattle in the evening in pur- 

 suit of the insects they stir up, that these birds 

 owe their ancient name caprimulgus, a goat- 

 milker ; but night- jar is a better term. Spring- 

 ing from the upper lip is an array of stiff 

 ^ 165 



