196 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
a long, low whistle and exclaimed: “Gosh! I’ve struck 
it; there isthe stump! move quiet, will you?” And sure 
enough the whippoorwill fluttered away from almost 
beneath our feet. Her flight was noiseless, and she 
alighted on the truuk of a fallen tree, which she seemed 
to hug closely, so as to be as little in sight as possible. 
There were two eggs in the nest—if nest it could be 
called—as the eggs lay on the ground unprotected, save 
by the dry leaves. They were about the size of doves’ 
eggs, with white ground work, delicately mottled with 
brown, and were of peculiar form, both ends being 
nearly alike. When we moved away from the place 
the bird returned close to the nest, but did not take her 
place again on the eggs until we left the premises. The 
whippoorwills are very unequally distributed. In sev- 
eral counties in the central part of the State none are to 
be found. They seem partial to oak-timbered lands, 
with a sprinkling of pitch pine. Oneseldom finds them 
in beech and maple woods. The whippoorwill and night 
hawk are often mistaken for each other, and thought by 
many to be one and the same bird. They resemble 
each other in form and much in color, excepting that 
the plumage of the former is more strongly marked and 
the tail is round, the middle quills being the longest. 
The night hawk has a white patch on the throat, and 
white spots on each of the five outer wing primaries, 
making a conspicuous white bar across the middle of 
each wing. The tail is forked like that of the swallow. 
They are similar in many of their habits, as neither of 
them makes a nest, but deposits two eggs on a flat sur- 
