WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
169 
this from the preceding species, when both are placed before 
them ; and some insisting that they are the same. This being 
the case, it becomes the duty of his historian to give a full and 
faithful delineation of his character and peculiarity of manners, 
that his existence as a distinct and independent species may 
no longer be doubted, nor his story mingled confusedly with 
that of another. I trust that those best acquainted with him 
will bear witness to the fidelity of the portrait. 
On or about the 25th of April, if the season be not uncom- 
monly cold, the Whip-poor-will is first heard in this part of 
Pennsylvania, in the evening, as the dusk of twilight com- 
mences, or in the morning as soon as dawn has broke. In the 
state of Kentucky I first heard this bird on the 14th of April, 
near the town of Danville. The notes of this solitary bird, 
from the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem 
like the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost 
all with great interest. At first they issue from some retired 
part of the woods, the glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, 
perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden 
fence, the road before the door, and even from the roof of the 
dwelling-house, long after the family have retired to rest. 
Some of the more ignorant and superstitious consider this 
near approach as foreboding no good to the family, — nothing 
less than sickness, misfortune, or death, to some of its members. 
These visits, however, so often occur without any bad conse- 
quences, that this superstitious dread seems on the decline. 
He is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and 
evening his shrill and rapid repetitions are heard from the 
adjoining woods, and when two or more are calling out at the 
same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at 
no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with 
the echoes from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, 
in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find 
it almost impossible for some time to sleep ; while to those 
long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby 
to assist their repose. 
