[Imitative, from the bird’s note: cf. WHIP-POOR-WILL.] Popular name for the Red-eyed Greenlet or ‘Flycatcher’ (Vireo olivaceus or Vireosylvia olivacea) of eastern N. America, and the Black-whiskered Greenlet (Vireo barbatulus or Vireosylvia calidris) of the W. Indies, Bahamas and Florida.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 476. Whip-tom-kelly. I believe this to be a bird of passage.
1864–5. Wood, Homes without H., xii. 247. The Red-Eyed Flycatcher (Muscicapa olivacea) popularly known as ‘Whip-Tom-Kelly,’ from its peculiar articulate cry.
1872. Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 120. Vireo altiloquus var. barbatulus. Black-whiskered Vireo. Whip-tom-kelly.
