78 



WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



Farther 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, filled with frag- 

 ments of pismires and grasshoppers ; skin of the bird loose, wrinkly 

 and scarcely attached to the flesh ; flesh also loose, extremely ten- 

 der j bones thin and slender; sinews and muscles of the wing feeble; 

 distance between the tips of both mandibles, when expanded, 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 part or os hyoides pass up the hind head, and 

 reach to the front, like those of the Woodpecker; which enables 

 the bird to revert the lower part of the mouth in the act of seizing 

 insects and in calling; skull extremely light and thin, being semi- 

 transparent, its cavity nearly half occupied by the eyes ; aperture 

 for the brain very small, the quantity not exceeding that of a Spar- 

 row; an Owl of the same extent of wing has at least ten times as 

 much. 



Tho 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. Ex- 

 traordinary as this may seem, it is nevertheless ti^ue ; and in proof 

 I offer the following facts. 



Three species only of this genus are found within the United 

 States, the Chiick-zviir s-widow, the Night-hawk, and the Whip-poor- 

 will. Catesby, in the eighth plate of his Natural History of Caro- 

 lina, has figured the firsts and in the sixteenth of his Appendix the 

 second ; to this he has added particulars of the Whip-poor-will, be- 

 lieving it to be that bird, and has ornamented his figure of the 

 JVight-haivk 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 



