378 WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
lying, and always ona dry situation. The eggs are deposited on the 
ground, or on the leaves, not the slightest appearance of a nest being 
visible. These are usually two in number, in shape much resembling 
those of the Night Hawk, but having the ground color much darker, 
and more thickly marbled with dark olive. The precise period of 
incubation, I am unable to say. 
In traversing the woods one day in the early part of June, along the 
brow of a rocky declivity, a Whip-poor-will rose from my feet, and 
fluttered along, sometimes prostrating herself, and beating the ground 
with her wings, as if just expiring. Aware of her purpose, I stood 
still, and began to examine the space immediately around me for the 
eggs or young, one or other of which ] was certain must be near. 
After a long search, to my mortification, I could find neither; and was 
just going to abandon the spot, when I perceived somewhat like a 
slight mouldiness among the withered leaves, and, on stooping down, 
discovered it to be a young Whip-poor-will, seemingly asleep, as its 
eyelids were nearly closed; or perhaps this might only be to protect 
its tender eyes from the glare of day. I sat down by it on the leaves, 
and drew it as it then appeared. It was probably not a week old. 
All the while I was thus engaged, it neither moved its body, nor 
opened its eyes more than half; and I left it as] found it. After 1 
had walked about a quarter of a mile from the spot, recollecting that I 
had left a pencil behind, I returned and found my pencil, but the 
young bird was gone. 
Early in June, as soon as the young appear, the notes of the male 
usually cease, or are heard but rarely. Towards the latter part of 
summer, a short time before these birds leave us, they are again occa- 
sionally heard; but their call is then not so loud — much less em- 
phatical, and more interrupted than in spring. Early in September 
they move off towards the south. 
The favorite places of resort for these birds are on high, dry situa- 
tions; in low, marshy tracts of country, they are seldom heard. It is 
probably on this account that they are scarce on the sea-coast and its 
immediate neighborhood; while towards the mountains they are very 
numerous. The Night Hawks, on the contrary, delight in these 
extensive sea marshes; and are much more numerous there than in 
the interior and higher parts of the country. But no where in the 
United States have I found the Whip-poor-will in such numbers as in 
that tract of country in the state of Kentucky called the Barrens, 
This appears to be their most conge.rial climate and place of resi- 
dence. There, from the middle of April to the Ist of June, as soon as 
the evening twilight draws on, the shrill and confused clamors of 
these birds are incessant, and very surprising to a stranger. They 
soon, however, become extremely agreeable ; the inhabitants lie down 
at night lulled by their whistlings; and the first approach of dawn is 
announced by a general and lively chorus of the same music ; while 
the full-toned tooting, as it is called, of the Pinnated Grouse, forms a 
very pleasing bass to the whole. 
I shall not, in the manner of some, attempt to amuse the reader with 
a repetition of the unintelligible names given to this bird by the Indi- 
ans, or the superstitious notions generally entertained of it by the 
same people. These seem as various as the tribes, or even families, 
