468 
GOATSUCKERS. 
familiar approaches are sometimes dreaded as an omen of 
misfortune. 
In the lower part of the State of Delaware, I have found 
these birds troublesomely abundant in the breeding season, so 
that the reiterated echoes of 'whip-whip-podr-ivill, 'whip-peri- 
will, issuing from several birds at the same time, occasioned 
such a confused vociferation as at first to banish sleep. This 
call, except in moonlight nights, is continued usually till mid- 
night, when they cease until again aroused, for a while, at the 
commencement of twilight. The first and last syllables of 
this brief ditty receive the strongest emphasis, and now and 
then a sort of guttural cluck is heard between the repetitions ; 
but the whole phrase is uttered in little more than a second 
of time. 
Although our Whip-poor-will seems to speak out in such 
plain English, to the ears of the aboriginal Delaware its call was 
wccodlis, though this was probably some favorite phrase or 
interpretation, which served it for a name. The Whip-poor- 
will, when engaged in these nocturnal rambles, is seen to fly 
within a few feet of the surface in quest of moths and other 
insects, frequently, where abundant, alighting around the house. 
During the day the birds retire into the darkest woods, usually 
on high ground, where they pass the time in silence and 
repose, the weakness of their sight by day compelling them 
to avoid the glare of the light. 
The female commences laying about the second week in 
May in the Middle States, considerably later in Massachusetts ; 
she is at no pains to form a nest, though she selects for her 
deposit some unfrequented part of the forest near a pile of 
brush, a heap of leaves, or the low shelving of a hollow rock, 
and always in a dry situation ; here she lays two eggs, without 
any appearance of an artificial bed. This deficiency of nest is 
amply made up by the provision of nature, for, like Partridges, 
the young are soon able to run about after their parents ; and 
until the growth of their feathers they seem such shapeless 
lumps of clay-colored down that it becomes nearly impossible 
to distinguish them from the ground on which they repose. 
