16 
CAPRIMULGUS VOCIFERUS. 
notions generally entertained of it by the same people. 
These seem as various as the tribes, or even families, 
with which you converse ; scarcely two of them will 
tell you the same story. It is easy, however, to observe, 
that this, like the owl and other nocturnal birds, is held 
by them in a kind of suspicious awe, as a bird with 
which they wish to have as little to do as possible. 
The superstition of the Indian differs very little from 
that of an illiterate German, a Scots Highlander, or the 
less informed of any other nation. It suggests ten 
thousand fantastic notions to each, and these, instead of 
being recorded with all the punctilio of the most im- 
portant truths, seem only fit to be forgotten. Whatever, 
among either of these people, is strange and not com- 
prehended, is usually attributed to supernatural agency ; 
and an unexpected sight, or uncommon incident, is 
often ominous of good, but more generally of bad, 
fortune, to the parties. Night, to minds of this com- 
plexion, brings with it its kindred horrors, its appari- 
tions, strange sounds, and awful sights ; and this solitary 
and inoffensive bird being a frequent wanderer in these 
hours of ghosts and hobgoblins, is considered by the 
Indians as being, by habit and repute, little better than 
one of them. All these people, however, are not so 
credulous : I have conversed with Indians who treated 
these silly notions with contempt. 
The whip-poor-will is never seen during the day, 
unless in circumstances such as have been described. 
Their food appears to be large moths, grasshoppers, 
pismires, and such insects as frequent the bark of old 
rotten and decaying timber. They are also expert in 
darting after winged insects. They will sometimes 
skim in the dusk, within a few feet of a person, uttering 
a kind of low chatter as they pass. In their migrations 
north, and on their return, they probably stop a day or 
two at some of their former stages, and do not advance 
in one continued flight. The whip-poor-will was first 
heard this season [1811] on the 2d day of May, in a 
corner of Mr Bartram’s woods, not far from the house, 
and for two or three mornings after in the same place, 
