WHIPPOORWILL. 
ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. 
O bird in New England is more readily known by 
his song than is the whippoorwill In the cour- 
ageous repetition of his name he accents the first and last 
syllables, the stronger accent falling on the last; always 
measuring his song with the same rhythm, while very 
considerably varying the melody — which latter fact is 
discovered only by most careful attention. Plain, simple, 
and stereotyped as his song appears, marked variations 
are introduced in the course of it. The whippoorwill 
uses nearly all the intervals in the natural scale, even 
the octave. I have never detected a chromatic tone. 
Perhaps the favorite song form is this:— 
peiecethialaiaal 
An eccentric part of the whippoorwill’s musical per- 
formance is the introduction of a “cluck” immediately 
after each “ whippoorwill;” so that the song is a regular, 
unbroken, rhythmical chain from beginning to end. One 
must be near the singer to hear the “cluck;” otherwise 
he will mark a rest in its place. 
