74 GOAT-SUCKER. 



minutes ; and we were all struck with wonder to 

 find that the organs of that little animal, when 

 put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the 

 whole building ! This bird also sometimes makes 

 a small squeak, repeated four or five times ; and I 

 have observed that to happen when the cock has 

 been pursuing the hen in a toying manner through 

 the boughs of a tree 1 . 



1 Mr. White's excellent description of this curious species, 

 in the present and subsequent letters, is only equalled by 

 those of a most accurate American ornithologist, whose deli- 

 neations of the manners of the different species that oc- 

 curred to him, ought to be examined as models by every 

 describing naturalist. Mr. Wilson thus beautifully describes 

 the calling of the Whip-poor-will of the Americans : " On 

 or about the 25th of April, if the season be not uncommonly 

 cold, the Whip-poor-will is heard in Pennsylvania, in the 

 evening, as the dusk of twilight commences, or in the morning, 

 as soon as dawn has broke. The 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 the roof of the dwell- 

 ing-house, hours after the family have retired to rest. Some of 

 the more ignorant and superstitious consider this near ap- 

 proach as foreboding no good to the family, nothing less than 

 the sickness, misfortune, or death, of some of its members. 

 Every morning and evening, his shrill and rapid repetitions 

 are heard from the adjoining woods ; and when two or more 

 are calling at the same time, as is often the case in the pair- 

 ing season, and at no great distance from each other, the 

 noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really 

 surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these 

 birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time 

 to sleep : while to those long acquainted with them, the 

 sound often serves as a lullaby, to assist their repose. The 

 notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have 

 been generally applied to them, ' Whip-poor-will,'' the first 

 and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis, and the 

 whole in about a second to each repetition ; but when two 



