NUTTALL'S WHIP-POOR-WILL. 351 



when she in a few moments found a shelter of willow branches, &c, under 

 which both remained until the storm had subsided. 



The next morning the wind was still blowing too hard for us to proceed, 

 and as on the former day, the hunters went off in many directions. Mr. J. 

 G. Bell, on his return from a walk up the river shore, where he had shot 

 some Wild Pigeons, started the individual now before you from the ground. 

 It flew a few yards, and my young companion took it for our common 

 Whip-poor-will; but on its second rising and flying again before him, he saw 

 that it was a much smaller bird, fired at it, and fortunately brought it to me, 

 fresh and beautiful though dead. 



On the evening of the next day, about ten o'clock, my friend Harris 

 called me to hear the notes of this bird. We had removed to an island 

 a mile or so below where the Whip-poor-will had been procured; and on 

 ascending the bank and entering the dried, rank grass of the prairie, the 

 notes of the birds came at once on our ears, for there were two of them, 

 both anxiously desirous, one might have thought, to convey to us all that 

 they could perform in lieu of a song. The sounds we heard, were indeed 

 those of a W 7 hip-poor-will, cut short of much of their compounds, for it was 

 reduced to the syllables Oh-ivill, Oh-will, Oh-ivill, repeated often and as 

 quickly as is the fashion of our own common species. 



Those birds were then on their passage southward, and I regret to say 

 that nothing can now be added to their habits. I am also sorry that no 

 specimens of the female were seen or procured. 



This pretty species I have, as you perceive, named after my friend 

 Thomas Nuttall, whose worth as a man and a scientific naturalist, are both 

 so well known. 



Ncttall's Whip-poor-will, Caprimulgus Nuttallii, Aud. 



74. 



Prairies of Western Missouri, and the Northern Territories. 



Adult Male. 



Bill black, iris dark hazel. Feet reddish-purple, the scales and claws 

 darker. The general colour of the upper parts is dark brownish-grey, lighter 

 on the head and medial tail feathers, which extend beyond the others half an 

 inch, and all of which are streaked and minutely sprinkled with brownish- 

 black and ash-grey. The quills and coverts are dull cinnamon colour, 

 spotted in bars with brownish-black; the tips of the former mottled with 

 light and dark brown. Three lateral tail feathers barred with dark brown 

 and cinnamon, and tipped with white. Throat brown, annulated with 

 black, a band of white across the fore neck; beneath the latter black mixed 



