WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
15 
and drew it as it then appeared. It w^as 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. To- 
wards 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 empha- 
tical, 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 interior and higher 
parts of the country. But no where in the United 
States have I found the whip-poor-will in such numbers 
as in that tract of country in the State of Kentucky 
called the Barrens. This appears to be their most con- 
genial climate and place of residence. There, from the 
middle of April to the 1st of June, as soon as the evening 
twilight draws on, the shrill and confused clamours of 
these birds are incessant, and very surprising to a 
stranger. They soon, however, become extremely 
agreeable, the inhabitants lie down at night lulled by 
their whistlings ; and the first approaches of dawn are 
announced by a general and lively chorus of the same 
music ; while the full-toned tooting , as it is called, of 
the pinnated grouse, forms a very pleasitfg bass to the 
whole. 
I shall not, in the manner of some; attempt to amuse 
the reader with a repetition of the unintelligible names 
given to this bird by the Indians, or the superstitious 
