WHIP-POOR-WILL. 377 
cold, the Whip-poor-will is first heard in this part of Pennsylvania, in 
the evening, as the dusk of twilight commences, or in the morning aa 
soon as dawn has broke. In the state of Kentucky I first heard this 
bird on the 14th 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 
superstitious ‘consider this near approach as foreboding no good to 
the family, — nothing less than sickness, misfortune, or death, to some 
of its members. These visits, however, so often occur without any 
bad consequences, that this superstitious dread seems on the decline. 
He is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and evening 
his shrill and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods, 
and when two or more are calling out at the same time, as is often the 
case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, 
the noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really 
surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are 
numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep; while to 
those long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby 
to assist their repose. 
These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have 
been generally applied to them, whip-poor-will, the first and last sylla- 
bles being uttered with great emphasis, and the whole in about a 
second to each repetition; but when two or more males meet, their 
whip-poor-will altercations become much more rapid and incessant, as 
if each were straining to overpower or silence the other. When 
near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At 
these times, as- well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than 
a few feet from the surface, skimming about the house and before the 
door, alighting on the wood-pile, or settling on the roof. Towards 
midnight they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, 
when they are heard with little intermission till morning. If there be 
a creek near, with high precipitous bushy banks, they are sure to be 
found in such situations. During the day they sit in the most retired, 
solitary, and deep-shaded parts of the woods, generally on high 
ground, where they repose in silence. When disturbed, they rise 
within a few feet, sail low and slowly through the woods for thirty or 
forty yards, and generally settle on alow branch or on the ground. 
Their sight appears deficient during the day, as, like Owls, they seem 
then to want that vivacity for which they are distinguished in the 
morning and evening twilight. They are rarely shot at or molested ; 
and from being thus transiently seen in the obscurity of dusk, or in 
the deep umbrage of the woods, no wonder their particular markings 
of plumage’ should be so little known, or that they should be con- 
founded with the Night Hawk, whom in general appearance they so 
much resemble. The fernale begins to lay about the second week in 
May, selecting for this purpose the most unfrequented part of the 
wood, often where some brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, &c. had been - 
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