"I find no other authority for this 'Indian' name. The Chippeway name for the Whip-poor-will is (as given by Tanner or Dr. E. James) Wâwonaissa. Nuttall states, the Delaware name was Wecoâlis: Zeisberger wrote it Wecoolis.—Yours sincerely, J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL."
"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."
NOTE D