whippoorwill

There are some great Christmas tunes out there – Slade, Wizzard, Mariah Carey – and as the Big Day approaches you would think that the dancefloors might capitulate under the strain of festive revellers and play some of the classics towards the end of the night, but no: whilst every other whippoorwill is forcing Christmas cheer down your throats with shocking immodesty, the dancefloors seem determined to resist its very existence.

Scrooge, eat your heart out. « Sven’s guide to… 2007

We have not seen that species of goatsucker called the whippoorwill, which is commonly confounded in the United

First Across the Continent; The Story of The Exploring Expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6 1805

We have not seen either that species of goatsucker or nighthawk called the whippoorwill, which is commonly confounded in the

History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6. William Clark 1804

The birds that sing all day have hushed, and the horned owls, the monster frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fowl it be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) which we English call the whippoorwill, are yet silent.

To Have and to Hold Mary Johnston 1903

The name Guaquili has a Cherokee sound and may be connected with wa′gulĭ′, "whippoorwill," uwâ′ gi'ĭ, "foam," or gi'lĭ, "dog."

Indians of North Carolina: Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, Transmitting, in Response to a Senate Resolution of June 30, 1914, a Report on the Condition and Tribal Rights of the Indians of Robeson and Adjoining Counties of North Carolina O. M. McPherson 1915

We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out because it moved its head.

V. Up the River of Tapirs 1914

We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out because it moved its head.

Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt 1888

Only the whippoorwill responds, so McCadams monologues.

Appleseed Project teaches marksmanship and history, hopes to improve the country 2010

On the other hand, I would bet that most, if shown a picture of Mr. Eastwood in his spaghetti western regalia, would be able to whistle the whippoorwill riff from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

'Mindset Lists' and a Mythical Generation Gap 2010

The first chirp comes at 4 a.m. in May after a night of barred owl coyote howl, and yes, the whippoorwill.

January « 2008 « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2008