WHIP-POOR-WILL. 157 



form an idea of the pleasure which every lover of nature must feel during 

 the time when this chorus is continued. 



Description is incapable of conveying to your mind any accurate idea of 

 the notes of this bird, much less of the feelings which they excite. Were I 

 to tell you that they are, in fact, not strictly musical, you might be disap- 

 pointed. The cry consists of three distinct notes, the first and last of which 

 are emphatical and sonorous, the intermediate one less so. These three 

 notes are preceded by a low cluck, which seems preparatory to the others, 

 and which is only heard when one is near the bird. A fancied resemblance 

 which its notes have to the syllables whip-poor-will, has given rise to the 

 common name of the bird. 



This species is easily shot, when the moon is shining, and the night clear, 

 as you may then approach it without much caution. It is, however, difficult 

 to hit it on wing, on account of the zig-zag lines in which it flies, as well as 

 the late hour at which it leaves its resting-place. It is seldom killed, how- 

 ever, being too small to be sought as an article of food, although its flesh is 

 savoury, and it is too harmless to excite dislike. 



It deposits its eggs about the middle of May, on the bare ground, or on 

 dry leaves, in the most retired parts of the thickets which it frequents. 

 They are always two in number, of a short elliptical form, much rounded, 

 and nearly equal at both ends, of a greenish-white colour, spotted and blotched 

 with bluish-grey and light brown. The young burst the shell in fourteen 

 days after the commencement of incubation, and look at first like a mouldy 

 and almost shapeless mass, of a yellowish colour. When first able to fly they 

 are of a brown colour, interspersed with patches of buff, the brown being 

 already beautifully sprinkled with darker dots and zig-zag lines. They 

 attain their full plumage before they depart, with their parents, for the south. 

 I think their southward migration, which is performed by night, must be 

 very rapid, as I have never found any of these birds in Louisiana at that 

 season, whereas they proceed slowly on their return in spring. Both birds 

 sit on the eggs, and feed the young for a long time after they are able to fly, 

 either on wing, in the manner of the Common House Swallow, or while 

 perched on the fences, wood-piles, or houses. The food of the young at first 

 consists of ants, and partially digested beetles and large moths, which the 

 parents disgorge; but at the end of a fortnight the parents present the food 

 whole to the young, which then swallow it with ease. 



Much has been said respecting the difference existing between the TVhip- 

 poor-will and the Night Hawk, for the purpose of shewing them to be 

 distinct species. On this subject I shall only say, that I have known both 

 birds from my early youth, and I have seldom seen a farmer or even a boy 

 in the United States, who did not know the difference between them. 



