WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
171 
darker, and more thickly marbled with dark olive. The 
precise period of incubation, I am unable to say. 
In traversing the woods one day in the early part of June, 
along the brow of a rocky declivity, a Whip-poor-will rose 
from my feet, and fluttered along, sometimes prostrating her- 
self, and beating the ground with her wings, as if just expiring. 
Aware of her purpose, I stood still, and began to examine the 
space immediately around me for the eggs or young, one or 
other of which I was certain must be near. After a long 
search, to my mortification, I could find neither ; and was just 
going to abandon the spot, when I perceived somewhat like 
a slight mouldiness among the withered leaves, and, on stoop- 
ing down, discovered it to be a young Whip-poor-will, 
seemingly asleep, as its eyelids were nearly closed ; or perhaps 
this might only be to protect its tender eyes from the glare of 
day. I sat down by it on the leaves, and drew it as it then 
appeared. (See fig. 3.) It was probably not a week old. All 
the while I was thus engaged, it neither moved its body, nor 
opened its eyes more than half ; and I left it as I found it. 
After I had walked about a quarter of a mile from the spot, 
recollecting that I had left a pencil behind, I returned and 
found my pencil, but the young bird was gone. 
Early in June, as soon as the young appear, the notes of 
the male usually cease, or are heard but rarely. Towards the 
latter part of summer, a short time before these birds leave 
us, they are again occasionally heard ; but their call is then 
not so loud — much less emphatical, and more interrupted than 
in spring. Early in September they move off towards the 
south. 
The favourite places of resort for these birds are on high, 
dry situations; in low, marshy tracts of country, they are 
seldom heard. It is probably on this account that they are 
scarce on the sea-coast and its immediate neighbourhood ; 
while towards the mountains they are very numerous. The 
Night Hawks, on the contrary, delight in these extensive sea 
marshes ; and are much more numerous there than in the 
