ORDER PASSERES.

The Whip-poor-Will.

Caprimulgus Vociferus.

WE follow the account of our own caprimulgus, with a sketch of the habits of another singular bird of the same tribe, found in North and South America. For this purpose, we shall have recourse to the volumes of Wilson, the American ornithologist, who thus records the result of his own personal observation of the peculiarity of the Caprimulgus Vociferus :

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"This is a singular and very celebrated species, universally noted over the greater part of the United States, for the loud reiterations of his favourite call in spring; and yet, personally, he is but little known, most people being unable to distinguish this from the other species; and some insisting that they are the same.

On or about the twenty-fifth of April, if the season be not uncommonly cold, the whip-poorwill is first heard in Pennsylvania, in the evening, as the dusk of twilight commences, or in the morning, as soon as dawn has broken. The

notes of this solitary bird, from the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem like the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost all with great interest. At first they issue from some retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain; in a few evenings, perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden-fence, the road before the door, and even from the roof of the dwelling-house, long after the family have retired to rest. Some of the more ignorant and superstitious, consider this near approach as foreboding to the family nothing less than misfortune, sickness, or death to some of its members; these visits, however, occur so often without any bad consequences, that this superstitious dread seems rather on the decline.

He is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and evening his shrill and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods; and when two or more are calling out at the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep;

while to those long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby to assist repose. These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have been generally applied to them, whip-poor-will, the first and last syllable being uttered with great emphasis, and the whole in about a second to each repetition; but when two or more males meet, their whip-poorwill altercations become much more rapid and incessant, as if each were straining to overpower or silence the other. When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At these times, as well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than a few feet from the surface, skimming about the house, and before the door, alighting on the wood-piles, or settling on the roof. Towards midnight, they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are heard with little intermission till morning. During the day, they sit in the most retired, solitary, and deep-shaded parts of the woods, generally on high groun, where they repose in silence. When disturbed, they rise within a few feet, sail low and slowly through the woods, for thirty or forty yards, and generally settle on a low branch, or on the ground. Their sight appears deficient during the day,

as, like owls, they seem then to want that vivacity for which they are distinguished in the morning and evening twilight.

The whip-poor-will is nine inches and a half long, and nineteen inches in extent. The bill is blackish, a full quarter of an inch long, much stronger than that of the night-hawk, and bent a little at the point. The under mandible arched a little upwards, following the curvation of the upper. The nostrils are prominent and tubular, their openings directed forwards. The mouth is extravagantly large, of a pale flesh-colour within, and beset along the sides with a number of long, thick, elastic bristles, the longest of which extends more than half an inch beyond the point of the bill, and curves inwards. These seem to serve as feelers, to prevent the escape of their prey. The eyes are very large, full, and bluishblack. The plumage is variegated with black, pale cream-brown, and rust colour, sprinkled in such minute streaks and spots, as to defy decription. The back is dark, and finely streaked with black."

We cannot close our account of the whippoor-will, without giving an amusing extract from the pages of Waterton, which will introduce to your notice some other species of this singular and interesting race of birds. "When the sun

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Its

has sunk in the western woods," says Waterton, "when you can only see a straggler or two of the feathered tribe, hastening to join his mate, already at its roosting-place; then it is that the goat-sucker comes out of the forest, where it has sat all day long in slumbering ease, unmindful of the gay and busy scenes around it. Its eyes are too delicately formed to bear the light, and thus it is forced to shun the flaming face of day, and wait in patience, till night invites him to partake of the pleasures her dusky presence brings. The harmless, unoffending goat-sucker, from the time of Aristotle to the present day, has been in disgrace with man. Father has handed down to son, and author to author, that this nocturnal thief subsists by milking the flocks. Poor, injured little bird of night, how sadly hast thou suffered, and how foul a stain has inattention to facts put upon thy character! Thou hast never robbed any man of any part of his property, nor deprived the kid of a drop of milk. When the moon shines bright, you may have a fair opportunity of examining the goatsucker. You will see it close by the cows, goats, and sheep. Approach a little nearer-he is not shy :

"He fears no danger, for he knows no sin."