WHIP-POOR- WILL. 



177 



and thiu, being semi-transparent, its cavity nearly half occu- 

 pied by the eyes ; aperture for the brain, very small, the 

 quantity not exceeding that of a sparrow ; an owl of the same 

 extent of wing has at least ten times as much. 



Though this noted bird has been so frequently mentioned 

 by name, and its manners taken notice of by almost every 

 naturalist who has written on our birds, yet personally it has 

 never yet been described by any writer with whose works I 

 am acquainted. Extraordinary as this may seem, it is never- 

 theless true ; and in proof I offer the following facts : — 



Three species only of this genus are found within the 

 United States, the chuck-will's-widow, the night hawk, and 

 the whip-poor-will. Catesby, in the eighth plate of his 

 " Natural History of Carolina," has figured the first, and in the 

 sixteenth of his Appendix the second ; to this he has added 

 particulars of the whip-poor-will, believing it to be that bird, 

 and has ornamented his figure of the night hawk with a 

 large bearded appendage, of which in nature it is entirely 

 destitute. After him, Mr Edwards in his sixty-third plate 

 has in like manner figured the night hawk, also adding the 

 bristles, and calling his figure the whip-poor-will, accom- 

 panying it with particulars of the notes, &c, of that bird, 

 chiefly copied from Catesby. The next writer of eminence 

 who has spoken of the whip-poor-will is Mr Pennant, justly 

 considered as one of the most judicious and discriminating of 

 English naturalists ; but, deceived by " the lights he had," he 

 has, in his account of the short-winged goatsucker * (Arct. 

 Zool., p. 434), given the size, markings of plumage, &c, of the 

 chuck-will's-widow ; and, in the succeeding account of his 

 long-winged goatsucker, describes pretty accurately the 

 night hawk. Both of these birds he considers to be the 

 whip-poor-will, and as having the same notes and manners. 



After such authorities, it was less to be wondered at that 

 many of our own citizens, and some of our naturalists and 



* The figure is by mistake called the long-winged goatsucker. See 

 " Arctic Zoology," vol. ii. pi. 18. 



YOL. II. M 



