VARIATIONS IN THE SONG OF THE WHIP-POOR-WILL 
RODMAN A. NICHOLS 
In the available writings on the avifauna of Essex County, 
the Whip-poor-will is described as a “Common Summer Res¬ 
ident”. 1 Its habitat is considered to be dense woods and 
thickets bordered by open fields and swamps; the woods as a 
place of residence, the fields and swamps as hunting grounds. 
for the birds’ usual food of flying insects. 
There are probably scores of localities in the county which 
correspond more or less closely with the accepted idea of suit¬ 
able Whip-poor-will country but it is my experience that the 
bird is not, by any means, to be found in all of them. In 
other words I find the bird distinctly local in its distribution,— 
regularly a summer resident in certain places, practically 
never present in others which appear to me to offer exactly the 
same advantages as to food supply, seclusion, terrain and 
arboreal features. 
I have lived the past three summers in the midst ol a thirty 
acre piece of white pine somewhat undergrown with beech, 
hickory and various species of oak. Located in the town of 
Boxford, and bordered on the south by the Ipswich River, 
this piece of land is part of a tract which extends north with¬ 
out definite break for miles. It is of course dotted with the 
typical farms of the county, and crossed by the usual country 
t 
roads. In its entirety, it is ideal ground for the Whip-poor-will. 
Around my camp the bird is truly common, because I reg¬ 
ularly hear, not only one, but as many as five singing birds 
every favorable night during the season. Neighbors within 
a short distance, whose homes are in exactly the same sort of 
country, say they have never heard the bird in their vicinity. 
1 Charles Wendell Townsend: “The Birds of Essex County , Massa¬ 
chusetts' p. 227 -1905. 
Albert P. Morse: “Pocket List of Birds of Eastern Massachusetts” 
p. 52-1912. 
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