618 
SWALLOW TRIBE. 
ceives the passenger by prostrating herself along the 
ground with beating wings, as if in her dying agony. 
The activity of the young and old in walking, and the 
absence of a nest, widely distinguishes these birds from 
the Swallows, with which they are associated. A young 
fledged bird of this species, presented to me, ran about 
with great celerity, but refused to eat, and kept continu- 
ally calling out at short intervals pe-ugh, in a low mourn- 
ful note.* 
After the period of incubation, or about the middle of 
June, the vociferations of the male cease, or are but 
rarely given. Towards the close of summer, previously to 
their departure, they are again occasionally heard, but 
their note is now languid and seldom uttered ; and early 
in September they leave us for the more genial climate 
of tropical America, being there found giving their usual 
lively cry in the wilds of Cayenne and Demerara. 
They enter the United States early in April, but are 
some weeks probably in attaining their utmost northern 
limit. 
Their food appears to be large moths, beetles, grass- 
hoppers, ants, and such insects as frequent the bark of 
decaying timber. Sometimes, in the dusk, they will 
skim within a few feet of a person, making a low chatter 
as they pass ; they also, in common with other species, 
flutter occasionally around the domestic cattle to catch 
any insects which approach or rest upon them, and hence 
the mistaken notion of their sucking goats, while they 
only cleared them of molesting vermin. 
The Whip-poor-will is 9J inches long, and 19 in the stretch of the 
wings. The bill blackish; nostrils tubular. Mouth very large, pale 
flesh-color within, and beset along the sides with a number of long 
* The resemblance of this tone to that of the Purple Martin is somewhat re- 
markable. 
