THE WHIPPOORWILL. 47 
markings of plumage, should be so little known, or that they should be con- 
founded with the Night Hawk, which, in general appearance, they so much 
resemble. The female begins to lay about the second week in May, select- 
ing, for this purpose, the most unfrequented part of the wood, often where 
some brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, &c., had been laying, and always on 
a dry situation.” 
The Whippoorwill constructs no nest, but lays its eggs, which are two in 
number, in a slight hollow which it scratches in the earth, usually near a rock 
or fallen trunk of a tree. These eggs are of an elliptical form, being as large 
at one end as at the other; their ground color is a delicate creamy white, with 
blotches, lines, and spots of different shades of light brown and lavender : 
taken altogether, it is one of the handsomest eggs found in New England. 
The length of several specimens before me varies from 1.21 to 2.27 inches ; 
breadth, from .75 to .79 inch. The bird commences laying about the last 
week in May, and the period of incubation is fourteen days. 
The young are soon able to walk, and in a few days can run with consid- 
erable speed ; and they hide with such adroitness, that it is a work of no little 
difficulty to capture them. The female, when her young are discovered, 
immediately throws herself before the intruder, counterfeiting ]Jameness so 
well, that, unless he is well acquainted with the habits of birds, he will 
quickly be misled into following her. As soon as the young birds are able 
to shift for themselves, they are turned adrift by their parents, and are seen 
only singly, or at most in pairs, during the remainder of their stay. By 
the latter part of August, or seldom later than the 10th of September, all 
of them depart for the south, the old males remaining a few days later, 
uttering, occasionally, their song, but always in the woods, or in localities 
far removed from human habitation. 
The European Night Jar is known by a variety of names, such as Jar- 
Owl, Fern-Owl, Wheel-Bird, Milchsaiiger, Nachtschwalbe, &c. It feeds 
on flies, moths, and beetles. “Its powers of flight are wonderful, exceeding 
even those of the swallows; the jarring sound, which gives name to the 
bird, is uttered sometimes while flying, but usually when it is at rest: it 
seems to be produced in the same manner as the purring of a cat, and re- 
sembles it, though louder. It appears that goat-sucking is not the only 
crime laid to this bird, for White, of Selborne, informs us that ‘the country 
people have a notion that the Fern-Owl, which they eall also Puchkeridge, 
is very injurious to weanling calves, by inflicting, as it strikes them, the 
fatal distemper known as puckeridge.’ Thus does this harmless, ill-fated 
bird fall under a double imputation, which it by no means deserves, in Italy, 
of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called the Caprimulgus, and 
with us of communicating a deadly disorder to the cattle.” 
