Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/620

596 WULMBREL WHIPPOORWILL whig party now call themselves liberals, and a more advanced wing of the party are known as radicals. In the United States the term whig was applied during the revolution to the patri- otic party, the adherents to the crown being called tories. Both words subsequently disap- peared from the political vocabulary of the country until the presidential election of 1832, when the anti-Jackson party took the name of whig. The party broke up in 1854-'6. WHIMBREL. SEE CURLEW. WHIN. See ULEX. WHIN CHAT. See STONE CHAT. WHIPPLE, Abraham, an American naval officer, born in Providence, R. I., Sept. 16, 1738, died near Marietta, O., May 29, 1819. In early life he was captain of a merchant vessel, and in the French and Indian war, in command of the pri- vateer Game Cock, he took in a single cruise 23 French prizes. In 1772 he commanded the expedition secretly organized in Providence, which burned his majesty's armed schooner Gaspee in Narragansett bay. In 1775 he com- manded, with the title of commodore, two armed vessels and two row galleys fitted out by Rhode Island, which captured one of the tenders to the British frigate Rose, off New- port. He afterward commanded the schooner Providence, which captured and destroyed more vessels than any other in the service during this period ; but she was finally taken by the British. He was then placed in com- mand of the new frigate Providence, and sent to France with government despatches. In 1779 he encountered the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet of nearly 150 sail, convoyed by a 74-gun ship and several smaller vessels. He concealed his guns, hoisted British colors, and joined the fleet as one of the merchantmen. Each night he captured a vessel, which he manned from his own crow and despatched homeward. In this way he took ten richly laden vessels, eight of which reached Ameri- can ports in safety. When endeavoring with a squadron to save Charleston from capture in 1780, he lost his vessels, and was held as a prisoner till the end of the war. In 1784 he commanded the first vessel that displayed the United States flag on the Thames. On leaving the service he retired to a farm in Cranston, a few miles from Providence, until the formation of the Ohio company in 1788, when he removed to Marietta. WHIPPLE, Edwin Percy, an American author, born in Gloucester, Mass., March 8, 1819. At the age of 15 he became clerk in a bank in Salem, and at 18 entered a banking house in Boston, of which he rose to the chief clerk- ship ; and he was superintendent of the read- ing room of the merchants' exchange from its foundation till 1860. In 1840 he delivered a humorous poem before the mercantile library association of Boston, and in 1850 a fourth of July oration before the city authorities, on " Washington and the Principles of the Amer- ican Revolution." He has published "Essays and Reviews" (2 vols., 1848); "Lectures on Subjects connected with Literature and Life " (1849); a life of Macaulay, prefixed to an edi- tion of his essays (1860) ; "Character and Char- acteristic Men" (1867); and "The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," a course of lectures delivered in 1859 before the Lowell institute (1869). WHIPPLE, William, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, born in Kittery, Me., Jan. 14, 1730, died Nov. 28, 1785. He was ear- ly sent to sea in a merchant vessel, and before his 21st year had made several voyages to Eu- rope as captain. In 1759 he became a mer- chant at Portsmouth, N. H. In 1775 he was a member of the provincial congress at Exeter, and next year of the continental congress. In 1777 he was commissioned brigadier general, and commanded the New Hampshire troops at Saratoga. In 1 778 he cooperated with Gen. Sul- livan in the siege of Newport. From 1782 to 1784 he was financial receiver of the state of New Hampshire, and in 1782 he was appointed a judge of the superior court of the state. WH1PPOORWILL, the common name of an- trostomus tociferus (Bonap.), a North American bird of the goatsucker fumily, derived from the fancied resemblance of its notes; for family and generic characters, see GOATSUCKER. It is 10 in. long and 19 in. in alar extent; the plumage is very difficult to describe, much resembling that of the European goatsucker. The bristles at the base of the bill are very stiff, more than an inch long, but without lateral filaments ; wings short and rounded, second quill the long- est, and tail rounded ; it resembles also the chuckwill's widow (A.Carolinensis, Gould), but is much smaller; the female is without the white on the tail. It is distributed over the eastern United States, being replaced on the upper Missouri and to the west by A. Nuttalli Whippoorwill (Antrostomus Nuttalli). (Cassin), smaller and lighter colored ; the gape in both is very large. It is seldom seen during the day, unless startled from its repose on or near the ground ; the flight is low, swift, zigzag, noiseless, and protracted, as it seeks the insects on which it feeds; according to Audubon, it always sits with its body parallel to, and never across, the branch or fence which supports it. It comes from the south in spring, returning in autumn. The notes are clear and loud for sev-