. Everyday birds; elementary studies . y. The most attractive feature of the nighthawk,to my eye, is its beautiful and peculiar flight —a marvel of ease and grace, and sufficient to dis-tinguish it at a glance from every other NewEngland bird. It is a creature of the upper air,never skimming the ground, so far as I know,and as it passes overhead you may easily see thelarge white patch in the middle of each longwing — a beauty spot, by the way, which iscommon to both sexes, and is wanting in thewhip-poor-will. The whip-poor-wills chief distinction is itssong — a song by itself, and familiar to
. Everyday birds; elementary studies . y. The most attractive feature of the nighthawk,to my eye, is its beautiful and peculiar flight —a marvel of ease and grace, and sufficient to dis-tinguish it at a glance from every other NewEngland bird. It is a creature of the upper air,never skimming the ground, so far as I know,and as it passes overhead you may easily see thelarge white patch in the middle of each longwing — a beauty spot, by the way, which iscommon to both sexes, and is wanting in thewhip-poor-will. The whip-poor-wills chief distinction is itssong — a song by itself, and familiar to everyone. Some people call it mournful, and I fearthere are still a few superstitious souls who listento it with a kind of trembhng. I have heard ofthe birds being shot because the inhabitants of ahouse could not bear its doleful and boding cry,as they were pleased to consider it. To my earsit is sweet music. I take many an evening strollon purpose to enjoy it, and am perennially thank-ful to Audubon for saying that he found the. WHIP-POOR-WILL NIGHTHAWK AND WHIP-POOR-WILL 63 whip-poor-wills cheering voice more interest-ing than the song of the nightingale. It will surprise unscientific readers to be toldthat the nearest relatives of whip-poor-wills andnighthawks are the swifts and the humming-birds. As if a chimney swift were more hke awhip-poor-will than like a swallow! and, stillmore absurd, as if there were any close relation-ship between whip-poor-wills and hummingbirds !Put a whip-poor-will and a ruby-throated hum-mer side by side and they certainly do look verylittle alike — the big whip-poor-will, with itsmottled plumage and its short, gaping beak, andthe tiny hummingbird with its burnished feathersand its long needle of a bill. Evidently thereis no great rehance to be placed upon outsideshow, or what scientific men call externalcharacters. We might as well say that thestrawberry vine and the apple-tree were owncousins. Yes, so we might, for the apple-treeand th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
