WHIP-POOR-WILL. 246 



instead of which there is a dully defined mark of a reddish cream color ; 

 the wings are nearly black, all the quills being slightly tipped with 

 white ; the tail is as in the male, and minutely tipped with white ; all 

 the scapulars and whole upper parts are powdered with a much lighter 

 gray. 



There is no description of the present species in Turton's translation 

 of Linnaeus. The characters of the genus given in the same work are 

 also in this case incorrect, viz. " mouth furnished with a series of bristles 

 — tail not forked," the Night-hawk having nothing of the former, and 

 its tail being largely forked. 



CAPRIMULGUS V0CIFEBU8.* 



WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



[Plate XLI. Fig. 1, Male. Fig. 2, Female. Fig. 8, Young.] 



This is a singular and very celebrated species, universally noted over 

 the greater part of the United States for the loud reiterations of his 

 favourite call in spring ; and yet personally he is but little known, most 

 people being unable to distinguish this from the preceding species, when 

 both are placed before them ; and some insisting that they are the same. 

 This being the case, it becomes the duty of his historian to give a full 

 and faithful delineation of his character and peculiarity of manners, 

 that his existence as a distinct and independent species may no longer 

 be doubted, nor his story mingled confusedly with that of another. I 

 trust that those best acquainted with him will bear witness to the fidelity 

 of the portrait. 



On or about the twenty-fifth of April, if the season be not uncom- 

 monly cold, the Whip-pool-will is first heard in this part of Pennsylvania, 

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

 as soon as dawn has broke. In the state of Kentucky I first heard 

 this bird on the fourteenth of April, near the town of Danville. 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 from the roof of the dwelling house, long 

 after the family have retired to rest. Some of the more ignorant and 



* Caprimulgus virginianus, Vieill. Ois. de I'Am. Sept. pi. 23. 



