The Wit of the Wild 



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a shrike, or a weasel, or a bird's-nesting boy 

 appears at their door, as when their own parents 

 come there. This noisy loquacity, in fact, 

 brings destruction to them, as often as the 

 young whip-poor-wills escape it by their sensible 

 silence, notwithstanding their more exposed 

 situation. 



The young are fed at first mainly upon half- 

 digested food disgorged by the parents, and 

 later upon soft worms until able to receive and 

 digest beetles and winged insects. The parents 

 are brave in their defense, but this must be 

 mainly by " bluffing," for no bird is so poorly 

 provided with weapons as this. " The chuck- 

 will' s-widow," Audubon tells us, " manifests a 

 strong antipathy toward all snakes, no matter 

 how harmless they may be. Although these 

 birds cannot in any way injure the snakes, they 

 alight near them on all occasions, and try to 

 frighten them away by opening their prodigious 

 mouth and emitting a strong, hissing murmur." 



It would by no means be surprising if a 

 bird like this should share with the owl and the 

 bat a superstitious regard from those ignorant 

 *$ 182 fc 



