FAMILY Caprlmu/g/dee. 



Wnip-poor-will Mary Johnston in the opening sentences 



r "-/""rLT" 8 f T HCLVe and t0 H ld make8 tllis 



L "o 75 Inches ratner picturesque allusion to the Whip- 

 May loth poor-will: "The birds that sing all day 

 have hushed, and the Horned Owls, the monster 

 frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fowl 

 it be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) 

 which we English call the Whip-poor-will, arc yet 

 silent." 



There is something uncanny about the nocturnal bird 

 and his strange song, particularly as he is always heard 

 and seldom seen. When he is seen it is too late in tin- 

 evening to get any idea of his colors. The white crescent 

 on the neck, and the white outer tail feathers, are all 

 that one can discern in the gathering dusk ; the rest is a 

 mixture of spotty browns. Head finely mottled witli 

 black and white ; back ochre-buff finely marked with 

 black ; wings dark brown with ruddy bars ; tail barred 

 with black and mottled with buff, but the end half of the 

 three outer feathers conspicuously white ; a white band 

 divides the throat and breast ; lower parts cream-buff 

 irregularly marked with dark sepia. The base of the bill 

 is set with long, stiff, curving bristles, and the mouth in 

 extremely large although the bill appears very small. 

 The foot is a failure so far as use and appearances go, 

 the claws are tiny, and the long middle toe has a con- 

 spicuous comb on the claw. One never sees the bird 

 perched crosswise on anything ; whether it be a rock, 

 the wood-pile, a log, or a fence rail, the position is in- 

 variably the same a squatting posture, the legs com- 

 pletely hidden, and the body parallel with any narrow 

 perch, such as a rail or a stick of wood ! It is evident 

 the creature would be unable to balance itself the other 

 way. As for its flight, that is as silent as the night, then 

 is not the rustle of a feather. It shares with the Owl a 1 1< 1 

 the Bat an absolutely noiseless wing. Egg, gray-white 

 marked with lih:c and gray. There are usually two, 

 which are deposited on the leafy ground of w< > 

 thickets. The female is similarly marked with the mule, 

 but cream buff displaces the white. 



The song is weird, there is nothing like it in all the 

 26 



