WHIP-POOR-WILL. 
19 
The present species, though it approaches nearer in 
its plumage to that of Europe than any other of the 
tribe, differs from it in being entirely without the large 
spot of white on the wing; and in being considerably 
less. Its voice, and particular call, are also entirely 
different. 
Farther to illustrate the history of this bird, the 
following notes are added, made at the time of dissec- 
tion: — 'Body, when stript of the skin, less than that 
of the wood thrush ; breastbone, one inch in length ; 
second stomach, strongly muscular, filled with fragments 
of pismires and grasshoppers; skin of the bird, loose, 
wrinkly, and scarcely attached to the flesh ; flesh also 
loose, extremely tender; bones, thin and slender; sinews 
and muscles of the wing, feeble ; distance between the 
tips of both mandibles, when expanded, full two inches, 
length of the opening, one inch and a half, breadth, one 
inch and a quarter ; tongue, very short, attached to the 
skin of the mouth, its internal part, or os lay aides , passes 
up the hind head, and reaches to the front, like that of 
the woodpecker ; which enables the bird to revert the 
lower part of the mouth in the act of seizing insects, 
and in calling ; skull, extremely light and thin, being 
semi-transparent, its cavity nearly half occupied 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 if has never yet been described 
by any writer with whose works I am acquainted. 
Extraordinary as this may seem, it is nevertheless 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. 
