1^6 WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



The female is about an inch less in length and in extent ; 

 the bill, mustaches, nostrils, &c, as in the male. She differs 

 in being much lighter on the upper parts, seeming as if 

 powdered with grains of meal ; and, instead of the white on 

 the three lateral tail-feathers, has them tipt for about three- 

 quarters of an inch with a cream colour ; the bar across the 

 throat is also of a brownish ochre ; the cheeks and region of 

 the eyes are brighter brownish orange, which passes also to 

 the neck, and is sprinkled with black and specks of white ; 

 the streak over the eye is also lighter. 



The young was altogether covered with fine down, of a 

 pale brown colour ; the shafts, or rather sheaths, of the quills, 

 bluish ; the point of the bill, just perceptible. 



Twenty species of this singular genus are now known to 

 naturalists ; of these, one only belongs to Europe, one to Africa, 

 one to New Holland, two to India, and fifteen to America. 



The present species, though it approaches nearer in its 

 plumage to that of Europe than any other of the tribe, differs 

 from it in being entirely without the large spot of white on 

 the wing, and in being considerably less. Its voice and par- 

 ticular call are also entirely different. 



Further to illustrate the history of this bird, the following 

 notes are added, made at the time of dissection : — Body, when 

 stript of the skin, less than that of the wood thrush ; breast- 

 bone, one inch in length ; second stomach, strongly muscular, 

 tilled with fragments of pismires and grasshoppers ; skin of 

 the bird, loose, wrinkly, and scarcely attached to the flesh ; 

 flesh, also loose, extremely tender; bones, thin and slender; 

 sinews and muscles of the wing, feeble ; distance between the 

 tips of both mandibles, whenexpanded, full two inches ; length 

 of the opening, one inch and a half, breadth, one inch and a 

 quarter ; tongue, very short, attached to the skin of the mouth ; 

 its internal parts, or os hyoides, pass up the hind head, and 

 reach to the front, like those of the woodpecker, which 

 enable the bird to revert the lower part of the mouth in the 

 act of seizing insects and in calling ; skull, extremely light 



