Whip-poor-will

Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus or Antrostomus vociferus), a species of Goatsncker (q.v.), a native of North America, common in the eastern parts of the United States, and often imagined to be identical with another goatsucker, the Night-hawk (Chordeiles popetue). It receives its popular name from the fancied resemblance of its notes to the words Whip poor Will. It is about 10 inches long, the plumage very like that of the European goatsncker, much mottled and indistinctly marked with small transverse bands, the top of the head streaked with black, a narrow white collar on the throat. The bristles at the base of the bill are very stiff, and more than an inch long, and the tail is rounded, the lateral feathers largely white in the male. This bird is seldom seen during the day, but seeks its food by night, catching moths, beetles, and other insects on the wing. Its flight is near the ground, zigzag, and noiseless. Its notes are heard only during the night, and are clear and loud, so that when a few of these birds are close at hand the noise is such that those unaccustomed to it cannot sleep. In the more southern parts of the United States the whip-poor-will is replaced by a larger species, the Chuck-Will's-widow (C. or A. carolinensis), and which, like the whip-poor-will, takes its name from its cry, and to the west by a smaller one (C. or A. Nuttalli) having a somewhat similar cry to the whip-poor-will, but feebler. See Baird, Brewer, and Ridgeway's North American Birds (Boston, 1874).