176 
WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
act of seizing insects, and in calling ; skull, extremely light 
and thin, being semi-transparent, its cavity nearly half occu- 
pied by the eyes ; aperture for the brain, very small, the 
quantity not exceeding that of a Sparrow ; an Owl of the same 
extent of wing has at least ten times as much. 
Though 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. Extraordinary as this may seem, it is never- 
theless true ; and in proof I offer the following facts :■ — 
Three species only of this genus are found within the 
United States, the Chuck-will’s-widow, the Night Hawk, and 
the Whip-poor-will. Catesby, in the eighth plate of his 
Natural History of Carolina , has figured the first, and in the 
sixteenth of his Appendix the second ; to this he has added 
particulars of the Whip-poor-will, believing it to be that bird, 
and has ornamented his figure of the Night Hawk 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 
bristles, and calling his figure the Whip-poor-will, accom- 
panying it with particulars of the notes, &c. of that bird, 
chiefly copied from Catesby. The next writer of eminence 
who has spoken of the Whip-poor-will is Mr Pennant, justly 
considered as one of the most judicious and discriminating of 
English naturalists ; but, deceived by 66 the lights he had,” he 
has, in his account of the Short- winged Goatsucker,* ( Arct . 
Zool. p. 434,) given the size, markings of plumage, &c. of the 
Chuck-will’s-widow; and, in the succeeding account of his 
Long-winged Goatsucker, describes pretty accurately the 
Night Hawk. Both of these birds he considers to be the 
Whip-poor-will, and as having the same notes and manners. 
After such authorities, it was less to be wondered at that 
* The figure is by mistake called the Long-winged Goatsucker. See Arctic 
Zoology, vol. ii. pi. 18. 
