340 THE WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



prefer broken country where wooded ravines and damp brushy hillsides abound. 

 I have seen half a dozen of them near Columbus and presume they breed 

 in some of the "runs." Chance Creek, a deep ravine in Lorain County, once 

 pine-clad, was the only spot where we could be sure of finding them for miles 

 around. 



It was here that I once listened to a concert which stands out in memory 

 like the singing of Patti. A small party of us, reunited classmates, were 

 crossing, at dusk, the high tongue of land between Chance Creek and Ver- 

 million River, when we heard the sweet notes of a Whippoorwill, whip-poor- 

 will, whip-poor-will, wafted up from the glen below. Soon the bird was 

 joined by another whose presence seemed to provoke the first to redou- 

 bled effort. The mellow notes were produced in a continuous series by each 

 performer, and a third chimed in, as we stood and listened to the intoxicating 

 music, in that tender fresh hour after sunset. After a time the bird-man 

 ventured to imitate their cries by whistling, and soon obtained a hearing. 

 The birds answered eagerly at frequent intervals. Then came a long hush, 

 followed by a sudden sense of the birds' presence, as they glided silently by, 

 almost brushing my wife's gai'ments with their c[uiet wings. They took 

 up a station near and poured forth such a flood of liquid notes as made the 

 air quiver and vibrate with the gushing melody, and bathed our world-worn 

 spirits in a grateful stream of limpid absolution. Awed and hushed the bird- 

 man could not emulate those glorious strains, and the trio retired in gentle 

 confusion. 



The periods of greatest activity in song are the hours just after sunset 

 and those preceding dawn, but the cries may be heard at all hours of the 

 night as the bird pauses from time to time to rest. 



The eggs, which are not quite white, as one might suppose them to be 

 from the photograph, are laid upon the fallen leaves or bare rock, without 

 any attempt at nest construction. The parent bird sits close as long as possi- 

 ble, or feigns lameness in the event of danger ; and she has also a hissing 

 note meant to repel attack. The eggs or young must be studied, if at all, 

 the hour they are discovered, for in the absence of the observer, the bird will 

 remove them — by the mouth it is said — to a place of safety. 



