WHIP-POOR-WILL 177 



their way toward the tropics by long, silent night 

 flights. Common summer residents have gathered 

 their families together and departed. Yet this frail, 

 delicate visitor of swift and silent flight not only 

 lingers beyond his time, but fills the night with the 

 melody of summer. 



The Whip-Poor-Will is often heard but seldom 

 seen, his retiring ways contrasting strongly with the 

 conspicuous courses of the circUng Night-hawk, to 

 whom he is closely related. He sits and sings in 

 the shade of the evening woods, always crouching 

 lengthwise on his perch, his weak and tiny feet being 

 incapable of supporting him in any other position. 

 His white necktie is the only relief in his dull brown 

 plumage, the fine and dehcate markings of black 

 and grey being generally invisible. When he darts 

 silently after a passing insect the white on his outer 

 tail feathers becomes conspicuous, and these marks 

 distinguish him from his mate, whose equally duU 

 plumage is relieved by light buff. He pursues his 

 prey after the manner of the Kingbirds and other 

 flycatchers, but there is no resonant snap when his 

 enormous gape, with its imprisoning bristles, closes 

 upon a Moth or Beetle. He returns swiftly and 

 silently, not to a conspicuous and naked limb, like 

 the Flycatchers of the open day, but to a shaded 

 and sheltered branch, where the surrounding trees 

 intensify the deepening gloom. The wait may be 



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