178 WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



writers, should fall into the like mistake, as copies of the 

 works of those English naturalists are to be found in several 

 of our colleges, and in some of our public as well as private 

 libraries. The means which the author of " American Ornitho- 

 logy " took to satisfy his own mind, and those of his friends, on 

 this subject, were detailed at large in a paper published about 

 two years ago in a periodical work of this city,* with which 

 extract I shall close my account of the present species:— 



" On the question, Is the whip-poor-will and the night 

 hawk one and the same bird, or are they really two distinct 

 species ? there has long been an opposition of sentiment, and 

 many fruitless disputes. Numbers of sensible and observing 

 people, whose intelligence and long residence in the country 

 entitle their opinion to respect, positively assert that the night 

 hawk and the whip-poor-will are very different birds, and 

 do not even associate together. The naturalists of Europe, 

 however, have generally considered the two names as appli- 

 cable to one and the same species ; and this opinion has also 

 been adopted by two of our most distinguished naturalists, 

 Mr William Bartram of Kingsessing.f and Professor Barton 

 of Philadelphia.^ The writer of this, being determined to 

 ascertain the truth by examining for himself, took the following 

 effectual mode of settling this disputed point, the particulars of 

 which he now submits to those interested in the question : — 



" Thirteen of those birds usually called night hawks, 

 which dart about in the air like swallows, and sometimes 

 descend with rapidity from a great height, making a hollow 

 sounding noise like that produced by blowing into the bung- 

 hole of an empty hogshead, were shot at different times and 

 in different places, and accurately examined, both outwardly 

 and by dissection. Nine of these were found to be males, and 



* The Portfolio. 



t Gaprimulgus Americanus, night hawk or whip-poor-will (Travels, 

 p. 292;. 



t Caprimulgus Yirginianus, whip-poor-will or night hawk (Frag- 

 ments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, p. 3). See also Ameri- 

 can Phil. Trans., vol. iv. p. 208, 209, note. 



