Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
The whippoorwill, because of its nocturnal habits and plain- 
tive note, is invested with a reputation for occult power which 
inspires a chilling awe among superstitious people, and leads 
them insanely to attribute to it an evil influence ; but it is a 
harmless, useful night prowler, flying low and catching enor- 
mous numbers of hurtful insects, always the winged varieties, in 
its peculiar fly-trap mouth. 
It loves the rocky, solitary woods, where it sleeps all day; 
but it is seldom seen, even after painstaking search, because of 
its dull, mottled markings conforming so nearly to rocks and dry 
leaves, and because of its unusual habit of stretching itself length- 
wise on a tree branch or ledge, where it is easily confounded with a 
patch of lichen, and thus overlooked. If by accident one happens 
upon a sleeping bird, it suddenly rouses and flies away, making 
no more sound than a passing butterfly — a curious and uncanny 
silence that is quite remarkable. When the sun goes down and 
as the gloaming deepens, the bird’s activity increases, and it begins 
its nightly duties, emitting from time to time, like a sentry on 
his post or a watchman of the night, the doleful call which has 
given the bird its common name. It 
“ Mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings 
Ever a note of wail and woe,” 
that our Dutch ancestors interpreted as “ Quote-kerr-kee” and so 
called it. They had a tradition that no frost ever appeared after 
the bird had been heard calling in the spring, and that it wisely 
left for warmer skies before frost came in the autumn. Prudent 
bird, never caught napping ! 
It is erratic in its choice of habitations, even when rock and 
solitude seem suited to its taste. Under no stress of circum- 
stances is it found close to the seashore, and in the Hudson River 
valley it keeps a half mile or more back from the river. 
The eggs, generally two in number, are creamy white, 
dashed with dark and olive spots, and laid on the ground on dry 
leaves, or in a little hollow in rock or stump — never in a nest 
built with loving care. But in extenuation of such careless- 
ness it may be said that, if disturbed or threatened, the mother 
shows no lack of maternal instinct, and removes her young, 
carrying them in her beak as a cat conveys her kittens to secure 
shelter. 
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