"_P.S._--Carver did not name 'the merry mocking-bird'--which Wordsworth
makes the companion of the 'Muccawis'; but Campbell had heard of 'the
_merry mock-bird's_ song,' and copied a description of it from Ashe's
_Travels in America_, in a note to _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (1809), pt. i.
st. 3."
Since receiving these letters I have ascertained that Wordsworth had in
his library at Rydal Mount--whether he had it at Allan Bank I cannot
say--a copy of one of the English editions of Carver's _Travels_.
Compare _Wanderings in South America, etc._, by Charles Waterton--a work
which was also in Wordsworth's library at Rydal. I quote from a recent
edition (1879). See pp. 99, 111, 199, and 488:--
"When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and
disappointments, in thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee,
and throw thee into a pensive mood, the owl will bear thee company.
She will tell thee that hard has been her fate too; and at intervals
'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' will take up the tale of sorrow.
Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form, and lost it
for a very small offence; and were the poet alive now, he would inform
thee, that 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' are the shades of these
poor African and Indian slaves, who died worn out and broken-hearted.
They wail and cry, 'Whip-poor-will' and 'Willy-come-go' all night long;
and often, when the moon shines, you see them sitting on the green turf,
near the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the bosom of
their helpless families, which all probably perished through grief and
want, after their support was gone." (p. 99).
"The Caprimulgus wheels in busy flight around the canoe, while
'Whip-poor-will' sits on the broken stump near the water's edge,
complaining as the shades of night set in" (p. 111).
The following is from _Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the
Habits of the Birds of America_, vol. i. p. 422, by John James Audubon,
Edinburgh, 1831.
"Whip-poor-will, _Caprimulgus vociferus_, a species of Night-jar.
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.... 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 wood,
each trying to outdo the others.... 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. A fancied resemblance which its
notes have to the syllables _whip-poor-will_ has given rise to the common
name of the bird."