5. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" DEFINITIONS.-I. Feign, pretend. 2. Main, ocean. 3. Věn'tur ous, daring. 4. Si'ren, fabled sea-nymph whose singing led sailors to destruction. 5. Wont, used; accustomed. 6. Těn'ant, occupant. 6. Ten'ant, occupant. 7. Re vealed', disclosed to view. 8. I'rised, having colors like those of the rainbow. 9. Crypt, vault; tomb. 10. Lüs'trous, shining. II. Spi'ral, a coil like the string upon a top. 12. Arch'way, a way or passage under an arch. NOTE.-Tri'ton, a fabled sea-god; shaped, the lower part like a fish, the upper part like a man, represented as blowing a trumpet made of a shell. LESSON XI. The Whip-poor-will. John James Audubon. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON (Aw'du bun), our great bird-lover and bird-artist, was born near New Orleans in 1780, and died in 1851. About the age of fourteen he went to Paris and studied painting under the celebrated David. The greater part of his life was spent in roaming the forests of the Southern States studying birds and painting them from life. In 1839 he published a limited subscription edition of his plates of bird-portraits, true to life in color and size. They are now very rare, and are said to be worth $1,000 per set. Later he published a volume of bird-biography, which has as great merit as his plates. 1. This bird makes its appearance in most parts of our Western and Southern Districts at the approach of spring, but is never heard, and indeed scarcely ever occurs, in the State of Louisiana. The more barren and mountainous parts of the Union seem to suit it best. Accordingly, the open barrens of Kentucky and the country through which the Alleghany ridges pass are more abundantly supplied with it than any other region. Yet, wherever a small tract of country thinly covered with timber occurs in the Middle Districts, there the whip-poor-will is heard during the spring and early autumn. 2. This species of night-jar, like its relative the chuckwill's-widow, is seldom seen during the day, unless when accidentally discovered in a state of repose, when, if startled, it rises and flies off, but only to such a distance as it considers necessary, in order to secure it from the further intrusion of the disturber of its noonday slumbers. Its flight is very low, light, swift, noiseless and protracted, as the bird moves over the places which it inhabits, in pursuit of the moths, beetles, and other insects of which its food is composed. 3. During the day it sleeps on the ground, the lowest branches of small trees and bushes, or the fallen trunks of trees so abundantly dispersed through the woods. In such situations, you may approach within a few feet of it; and, should you observe it whilst asleep, and not make any noise sufficient to alarm it, it will suffer you to pass quite near without taking flight, as it seems to sleep with great soundness, especially about the middle of the day. In rainy or very cloudy weather it sleeps less, and is more on the alert. Its eyes are then kept open for hours at a time, and it flies off as soon as it discovers an enemy approaching, which it can do at such times at a distance of twenty or thirty yards. It always appears with its body parallel to the direction of the branch or trunk on which it sits, and, I believe, never alights across a branch or fence-rail. 4. No sooner has the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, than this bird bestirs itself, and sets out in pursuit of insects. It passes low over the bushes, moves to the right or left, alights on the ground to secure its prey, passes repeatedly and in different directions over the same field, skims along the skirts of the woods, and settles occasionally on the tops of the fence-stakes or on stumps of trees, from whence it sallies, like a fly-catcher, after insects, and, on seizing them, returns to the same spot. 5. When thus situated, it frequently alights on the ground to pick up a beetle. Like the chuck-will's-widow, it also balances itself in the air, in front of the trunks of trees or against the sides of banks, to discover ants and other small insects that may be lurking there. Its flight is so light and noiseless that, whilst it is passing within a few feet of a person, the motion of its wings is not heard by him, and merely produces a gentle undulation in the air. During all this time, it utters a low, murmuring sound, by which alone it can be discovered in the dark, when passing within a few yards of one, and which I have often heard when walking or riding through the barrens at night. 6. Immediately after the arrival of these birds, their notes are heard in the dusk and through the evening, in every part of the thickets and along the skirts of the woods. They are clear and loud, and to me are more interesting than those of the nightingale. This taste I have probably acquired by listening to the whip-poor-will in parts where nature exhibited all her lone grandeur, and where no discordant din interrupted the repose of all around. Only think, kind reader, how grateful to me must have been the cheering voice of this, my only companion, when, fatigued and hungry, after a day of unremitted toil, I have planted my camp in the wilderness, as the darkness of night put a stop to my labors! I have often listened to the nightingale, but never under such circumstances, and therefore its sweetest notes have never awakened the same feeling. 7. The whip-poor-will continues its lively song for several hours after sunset, and then remains silent until the first dawn of day, when its notes echo through every vale and along the declivities of the mountains, until the beams of the rising sun scatter the darkness that overhung the face of nature. Hundreds are often heard at the same time in different parts of the woods, each trying to outdo the others; and when you are told that the notes of this bird may be heard at the distance of several hundred yards, you may form an idea of the pleasure which every lover of nature must feel during the time when this chorus is continued. 8. Description is incapable of conveying to your mind any accurate idea of the notes of this bird, much less of the feelings which they excite. Were I to tell you that they are, in fact, not strictly musical, you might be disappointed. The cry consists of three distinct notes, the first and last of which are emphatical and sonorous, the intermediate one less so. These three notes are preceded by a low cluck, which seems preparatory to the others, and which is only heard when one is near the bird. A fancied resemblance which its notes have to the syllables whip-poor-will has given rise to the common name of the bird. 9. This species is easily shot when the moon is shining and the night clear, as you may then approach it without much caution. It is, however, difficult to hit it on wing, on account of the zigzag lines in which it flies, as well as the late hour at which it leaves its resting-place. It is seldom killed, however, being too small to be sought as an article of food, although its flesh is savory, and it is too harmless to excite dislike. 10. It deposits its eggs about the middle of May on the bare ground or on dry leaves, in the most retiring parts of the thickets which it frequents. They are always two in number, of a short, elliptical form, much rounded, and nearly equal at both ends, of a greenish-white color, spotted and blotched with bluish-gray and light brown. The young burst the shell in fourteen days after the commencement of incubation, and look at first like a moldy and almost shapeless mass, of a yellowish color. When first able to fly they are of a brown color, interspersed with patches of buff, the brown being already beautifully sprinkled with darker dots and zigzag lines. They attain their full plumage before they depart with their parents for the South. |