250 WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



the eyes are brighter brownish orange, which passes also to the neck, 

 and is sprinkled with black and specks of white ; the streak over the 

 eye is also lighter. 



The young was altogether covered with fine down of a pale brown 

 color ; the shafts or rather sheaths of the quills bluish ; the point of the 

 bill just perceptible. 



Twenty species of this singular genus are now known to naturalists ; 

 of these one only belongs to Europe, one to Africa, one to New Hol- 

 land, two to India, and fifteen to America. 



The present species, though it approaches nearer in its plumage to 

 that of Europe than any other of the tribe, difiers from it in being 

 entirely without the large spot of white on the wing ; and in being 

 considerably less. Its voice, and particular call, are also entirely 

 difi'erent. 



Farther to illustrate the history of this bird, the following notes are 

 added, made at the time of dissection. Body, when stripped of the 

 skin, less than that of the Wood Thrush ; breast bone one inch in 

 length ; second stomach strongly muscular, filled with fragments of 

 pismires and grasshoppers ; skin of the bird loose, wrinkly and scarcely 

 attached to the flesh ; flesh also loose, extremely tender ; bones thin and 

 slender ; sinews and muscles of the wing feeble ; distance between the 

 tips of both mandibles, when expanded, full two inches, length of the 

 opening one inch and a half, breadth one inch and a quarter ; tongue 

 very short, attached to the skin of the mouth, its internal part or o« 

 'hyoides pass up the hind head, and reach to the front, like those of the 

 Woodpecker ; which enables the bird to revert the lower part of the 

 mouth in the act of seizing insects and in calling ; skull extremely light 

 and thin, being semi-transparent, its cavity nearly half occupied by the 

 eyes ; aperture for the brain very small, the quantity not exceeding that 

 of a Sparrow ; an Owl of the same extent of wing has at least ten times 

 as much. 



Though this noted bird has been so frequently mentioned by name, 

 and its manners taken notice of by almost every naturalist who has 

 written on our birds, yet personally it has never yet been described by 

 any writer with whose works I am acquainted. Extraordinary as this 

 may seem, it is nevertheless true ; and in proof I offer the following 

 facts. 



Three species only of this genus are found within the United States, 

 the Ghuek-wilV 8-widow, the Night-hawk, and the Whip-poor-will. 

 Catesby, in the eighth plate of his Natural History of Carolina, has 

 figured the first, and in the sixteenth of his Appendix the second ; to 

 this he has added particulars of the Whip-poor-will, believing it to be 

 that bird, and has ornamented his figure of the Night-hawk with a large 

 bearded appendage, of which in nature it is entirely destitute. After 



