"Whip-poor-will" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a great size, and there are gold-eyes, suckers, and cat-fish. Unattractive as are the names of the two last, the fish themselves are excellent. Among the birds, Professor Hind mentions prairie-hens, plovers, various ducks, loons, and other aquatic birds, besides the partridge, quail, whip-poor-will, hairy woodpecker, Canadian jay, blue jay, Indian hen, and woodcock. In the mountain region are bighorns and mountain goats; the grizzly bear often descends from his rugged heights into the plains, ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston
... that comfortable room, abounding in all the elegancies of the highest civilization, and that untrodden wilderness in which the whip-poor-will cried and ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... understand That Camelot lay close to Fairyland, And the wild blast of fairy horns, once known, Is straightway recognized as soon as blown, Being a sound unique, unearthly, shrill,— Between a screech-owl and a whip-poor-will. The mischief is, that no one e'er can tell Whether such heralding bodes ...
— Gawayne And The Green Knight - A Fairy Tale • Charlton Miner Lewis
... dreamy with caress of softest south wind, musical with the drone of myriad crickets, with the boom of frogs from the low land adjoining the river, melancholy with the call of the catbird, with the infrequent note of the whip-poor-will, was upon the land of the Mandans when the score and one, their dripping ponies once more dry, took up the last relay of their journey. Night had caught them there in the deserted settlement, and Landor had given the word to halt, to wait. Now, far to the east, apparently from ...
— Where the Trail Divides • Will Lillibridge
... on. The birds made no noise; only the whip-poor-will repeated over and over again its melancholy refrain in the marsh beyond the meadow. The brook ran slowly, and its voice was so hushed and tiny that you might have thought that it was saying its ...
— A Little Book of Profitable Tales • Eugene Field
... tiger-owls yelped and hallooed across the valley; all night the spectral whip-poor-will whispered its husky, frightened warning. And long after midnight a tiny bird awoke and sang monotonously ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... black forest wall there came the soughing of the wind and the nocturnal rustle of things unknown. And suddenly there came from close at hand a startling sound: a clarion call that tore the veil lying over my mental vision: the sharp, repeated whistle of the whip-poor-will. And with my mind's eye I saw the dusky bird: shooting slantways upward in its low flight which ends in a nearly perpendicular slide down to within ten or twelve feet from the ground, the bird being closely followed by a second one pursuing. In reality I did not see the birds, but I heard the ...
— Over Prairie Trails • Frederick Philip Grove
... below; The winds are whist, and the owl is still, The bat in the shelvy rock is hid. And naught is heard on the lonely hill But the cricket's chirp, and the answer shrill Of the gauze-winged katy-did; And the plaint of the wailing whip-poor-will, Who mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings, Ever a note of wail and woe, Till morning spreads her rosy wings, And earth and sky ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin
... and with which we connected the ripening of the strawberry, the merriest and most rollicking of all bird songs, as that of the bluebird was the tenderest. Then came the hermit thrush, heard only in the depth of the forest, shy and remote in his life and nesting, and the whip-poor-will, in the evening. Each was a new leaf turned over in my book of life, the reading of which was my only happiness. What else, or more, could be expected of an existence hedged in by the terrors of eternity, the hauntings of ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I • Stillman, William James
... there on Merlin Hill Sounds the plaintive cry of the whip-poor-will, And the dew-drops lie on the tangled vines, And over the poplars Venus shines, And over the silent mill. Ko-ling, ko-lang, kolinglelingle, With ting-a-ling and jingle, The ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For • Various
... trees grew dark and dusky; and very faint and dim showed the picture that was so bright a little while ago. As they sat quite silent, listening to what nature had to say to them, or letting fancy and memory take their way, the silence was broken—hardly broken—by the distinct far-off cry of a whip-poor-will. Alice grasped her brother's arm, and they remained motionless, while it came nearer, nearer—then quite near—with its clear, wild, shrill, melancholy note sounding close by them again and again, strangely, ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner
... breathing vespers at an altar cushioned with moss, while the fire-flies are kindling their dim lamps in the cathedral of the woods. The evening dew on strings of fern is counting its beads in prayer. The "Whip-poor-will" takes up its notes of complaint, making us wonder on our way home what "Will" it was that in boyhood maltreated the ancestors of this species of birds, whether William Wordsworth, or William Cowper, or William Shakspeare, so that the feathered descendants ...
— Around The Tea-Table • T. De Witt Talmage
... forth from the shores the notes of an innumerable variety of insects, which filled the air with a strange but not inharmonious concert; while ever and anon was heard the melancholy plaint of the whip-poor-will, who, perched on some lone tree, wearied the ear of night with his incessant moanings. The mind, soothed into a hallowed melancholy, listened with pensive stillness to catch and distinguish each sound that vaguely echoed from the shore—now and ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving
... pride of birth could render; As violets, our women pure and tender; And when they spoke, their voice did thrill Until at eve, the whip-poor-will, At morn the mocking-bird, were mute and still In the ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... the cry of the whip-poor-will. The river had lost all its green and was purple, and purple shadows lay on the distant mountains and opposite ridge. Darkness was mercifully covering this poor demented Indian woman, overcome by the burdens of her life, aged without ...
— The Chase Of Saint-Castin And Other Stories Of The French In The New World • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... wing, till the straining eye can no longer distinguish them, and they are gone! Ducks, too, whir past in rapid flight, steering wide of the boats, and again bending in long graceful curves into their course. The sweet, plaintive cry of the whip-poor-will rings along the shore; and the faint answer of his mate floats over the lake, mellowed by distance to a long tiny note. The air is motionless as the water; and the enraptured eye gazes in dreamy enjoyment on all that is lovely and peaceful ...
— Hudson Bay • R.M. Ballantyne
... klingle, klangle, klingle, With loo-oo and moo-oo and jingle The cows are coming home; And over there in Merlin hill, Hear the plaintive cry of the whip-poor-will; The dew drops lie on the tangled vines, And over the poplars Venus shines, And over the silent mill; Ko-ling, ko-lang, kolinglelingle With ting-a-ling and jingle The cows come slowly home; Let down the bars, let in the train Of long-gone songs, and flowers and ...
— Standard Selections • Various
... rising into a mournful wail, then sinking info the soft cries of the whip-poor-will. In a few minutes the perplexed fugitives were deep in a clump of wild hawberries, invisible to any one who should pass. The strains had ceased as suddenly as they began. Then a faint hallo-o-o sounded, being answered in the bushes, as it seemed, just in front of where ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan
... The path of gold and white The moon had cast across the river's breast, The shores in shadows clad, The far-away, half-sad Sweet singing of the whip-poor-will, all soothed ...
— Flint and Feather • E. Pauline Johnson
... of a half mile, when her breath came in little pants, she stopped with a nervous start and looked about her. The loneliness seemed drawing closer like a mist, and the cry of a whip-poor-will from the little stream in the meadow sent frightened thrills, like ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow
... not easily understood is a spirit. Among the Creek Indians the Whip-poor-will is a spirit; the Jack o' Lantern is the same: and, with regard to the latter, they agree with the remnant of the Massachusett Indians, who believe it is the shape which the Evil Spirit takes in his visits to the sons of men. An old Indian ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones
... grew so thin and dry that they did little harm by passing through it. It sprang up in front of their feet as they moved backwards in their white dresses. All colour had passed from the earth. The ripple of the river and the cry of the whip-poor-will rose amid the murmur of the ...
— What Necessity Knows • Lily Dougall
... which looked strange, and though I have great faith in the integrity of Cousin Dempster, a young lady in my peculiar circumstances cannot be too particular; I declined to go into that curtained, long car, and sat up in a high-backed chair all night, wide awake as a whip-poor-will, for Cousin Dempster was on the next seat sleeping like a mole, and his head more than once came down so close to my shoulder that it made me shudder for fear that people might not know that he was my cousin's husband, and ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens
... [Whip-poor-Will! egad, I think they'll whip poor Rip.](109)—[ Takes aim at bird; it flashes in the pan.]—Another miss! Oh, curse the misses and the missusses! hang me if I can get a single shot at the sky-flyers. [Wish](110) I had one of de German guns which ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke
... Blackbird and Bobolink will fly after you, and make the day more delightful to you. And when you go home tired after sundown Vesper Sparrow will tell you how grateful we are. When you sit down on your porch after dark, Fifebird and Hermit Thrush and Wood Thrush will sing to you; and even Whip-poor-will will cheer you up a little. We know where we are safe. In a little while all the birds will come to live in Massachusetts again, and everybody who loves music will like to make a summer home ...
— Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. II, No 3, September 1897 • Various
... warble, swallows scream, Or hens will cackle clear. In robin's song, the whip-poor-will Pours ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller
... the pathless woods with my rifle on my shoulder. I sat on the old familiar logs amid the falling leaves of autumn and heard the squirrels bark and shake the branches as they jumped from tree to tree. I heard the katydid sing, and the whip-poor-will, and the deep basso-profundo of the bullfrog on the bank of the pond. I heard the drumming of a pheasant and the hoot of a wise old owl away over in "Sleepy Hollow." I heard the tinkling of bells on ...
— Gov. Bob. Taylor's Tales • Robert L. Taylor
... America there is a singular bird, called whipper-will, or whip-poor-will, which has obtained its name from the plaintive noise that it makes. This it commences every evening about dusk, and continues through the greatest part of the night. The frogs in America make a most singular noise. ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley
... stealthily and as silently as a cat, she went around to that side of the house, and a moment later the strange, mournful call of a whip-poor-will sounded in the still night air. It was repeated two or three times, but there was no answer. Then Bessie changed her ...
— A Campfire Girl's Happiness • Jane L. Stewart
... me as though I'd laid there two days. A rain finally come on, with a good even-down pour, that washed in a little, and cooled my hot head; and after it passed by I heerd one whip-poor-will singin', so't I knew it was night. And pretty soon I heerd the tramp of a horse's feet;—it come up; it stopped; I heerd Russell say out loud, "O Lord!" and give a groan, and then I called to him. I declare, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 11, September, 1858 • Various
... with the scent of the upturned earth, and the closing day refined into a tranquil beauty; but the young man, as he passed briskly, did not so much as draw a lengthened breath, and when presently the cry of a whip-poor-will floated from the old rail fence, he fell into a whistling mockery of the plaintive notes. The dogs at his heels started a rabbit once from the close cover of the underbrush, and he called them to order ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow
... to herself, when she had nearly reached the top of the hill,—"it's mortal queer! Like a whip-poor-will on a moonlight night: you hear it whistlin' on the next fence-rail, it doesn't seem a yard off; you step up to ketch it, and there's nothin' there; then you step back ag'in, and 'whip-poor-will! whip-poor-will!' whistles louder ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor
... the bluebird. "Thank you," I replied, "seeing is believing." "Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will," cried a large, spotted bird. "That," thought I, "is a prize fighter." "Cheat, cheat!" urged a pious-looking cardinal, who evidently mistook me for a gambler. "Don't," roared a bullfrog, who was seated ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... stern climate we knew what it meant. Our fun was over. We sat in silence, speeding down the long hills in the fading light of the afternoon. Those few solemn hours in which I heard only the wagon's rumble and the sweet calls of the whip-poor-will-waves of music on a sea of silence-started me in a way of thought which has led me high and low these many years and still invites me. The day was near its end when we got to the first big clearing. From the top of a high hill we could see above the far forest, the red rim of ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller
... but could discover none; a newly-broken twig was all the sign that he could see. He glanced around among the trees, but there was no visible movement, and a whip-poor-will was singing undisturbed from a high bough of a balsam tree ...
— Kiddie the Scout • Robert Leighton
... and flash out their signals, like beacon lights in the darkness, while, ringing up from the valley, the call of the whip-poor-will echoes clear and sweet, each syllable pronounced as distinctly as if uttered by a human voice. In a tree overhead a screech owl emits his evening call in a clear, vibrating tremolo, as if to warn the smaller birds that he is on watch, ...
— Byways Around San Francisco Bay • William E. Hutchinson
... Flint, Leaming Improved Yellow Dent, Pride of the North Yellow Dent, Sanford White Flint, Mastadon, Improved Hickory King White Dent, Iowa Red Mine Yellow Dent, Golden Dew Drop, Southern Sheep Tooth, Red Cob Ensilage, Sweet or Sugar Cow Peas.—Black, Black Eyed, Clay, Whip-Poor-Will, Wonderful Buckwheat.—New Japanese, Silver Hull Artichoke.—French Green Globe Asparagus.—Conover's Colossal, Palmetto, Barr's Mammoth, Columbian Mammoth White Beets.—Eclipse, Dark Red Egyptian Turnip, Crosby's Dark Red Egyptian, Crimson Globe, ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis
... in the wings, and by the white tips to the outer tail feathers in the present species, while the Night Hawk has a prominent white band across the tail, but the top is black, and the tail slightly forked. The Whip-poor-will, rarely leaves its place of concealment before dark, and is never seen flying about cities, as are the Nighthawks. In their pursuit of insects, they glide like a shadow over fields and woods, their soft plumage giving forth no sound ...
— The Bird Book • Chester A. Reed |
