WHIP- POOR- WILL. 



171 



long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby 

 to assist their repose. 



These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words 

 which have been generally applied to them, whip-poor-will, 

 the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis, 

 and the whole in about a second to each repetition ; but when 

 two or more males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations be- 

 come much more rapid and incessant, as if each were straining 

 to overpower or silence the other. When near, you often hear 

 an introductory cluck between the notes. At these times, as 

 well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than a few 

 feet from the surface, skimming about the house and before 

 the door, alighting on the wood pile, or settling on the roof. 

 Towards midnight they generally become silent, unless in 

 clear moonlight, when they are heard with little intermission 

 till morning. If there be a creek near, with high precipitous 

 bushy banks, they are sure to be found in such situations. Dur- 

 ing the day they sit in the most retired, solitary, and deep 

 shaded parts of the woods, generally on high ground, where 

 they repose in silence. When disturbed, they rise within a few 

 feet, sail low and slowly through the woods for thirty or forty 

 yards, and generally settle on a low branch or on the ground. 

 Their sight appears deficient during the day, as, like owls, 

 they seem then to want that vivacity for which they are dis- 

 tinguished in the morning and evening twilight. They are 

 rarely shot at or molested ; and from being thus transiently 

 seen in the obscurity of dusk, or in the deep umbrage of the 

 woods, no wonder their particular markings of plumage should 

 be so little known, or that they should be confounded with 

 the night hawk, whom in general appearance they so much 

 resemble. The female begins to lay about the second week 

 in May, selecting for this purpose the most unfrequented part 

 of the wood, often where some brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, 

 &c, had been lying, and always on a dry situation. The 

 eggs are deposited on the ground or on the leaves, not the 

 slightest appearance of a nest being visible. These are 



