WHIP-POOR-WILL. 467 
WHIP-POOR-WILL 
ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. 
CuHar. Gape extremely wide; rictal bristles without lateral filaments. 
General color dull gray brown, mottled with black, white, and tawny; 
throat with collar of white or tawny; outer tail-feathers partly white; 
under parts gray mottled with black. Length 9% to 10 inches. 
Nest. In dense woods or shady dells; eggs laid on the ground or 
amid dry leaves. - 
£ggs. 2; white or buffy marked brown and lavender; 1.12 X 0.85. 
This remarkable and well-known nocturnal bird arrives in 
the Southern States in March, and in the Middle States about 
the close of April or the beginning of May, and proceeds in 
its vernal migrations along the Atlantic States to the centre 
of Massachusetts, being seldom seen beyond the latitude of 
43°; and yet in the interior of the continent, according to 
Vieillot, it continues as far as Hudson Bay, and was heard, as 
usual, by Mr. Say at Pembino, in the high latitude of 49°. In 
all this vast intermediate space, as far south as Natchez on the 
Mississippi, and the interior of Arkansas, these birds familiarly 
breed and take up their temporary residence. Some also pass 
the winter in the interior of East Florida, according to Audu- 
bon. In the eastern part of Massachusetts, however, they are 
uncommon, and always affect sheltered, wild, and hilly situa- 
tions, for which they have in general a preference. About 
the same time that the sweetly echoing voice of the Cuckoo is 
first heard in the north of Europe, issuing from the leafy 
groves as the sure harbinger of the flowery month of May, 
arrives amongst us, in the shades of night, the mysterious 
Whip-poor-will. The well-known saddening sound is first 
only heard in the distant forest, re-echoing from the lonely glen 
or rocky cliff ; at length the oft-told solitary tale is uttered from 
the fence of the adjoining field or garden, and sometimes the 
slumbering inmates of the cottage are serenaded from the low 
roof or from some distant shed. Superstition, gathering terror 
from every extraordinary feature of nature, has not suffered 
this harmless nocturnal babbler to escape suspicion, and his 
