576 AVES— CHUCK WILL'S WIDOW. 



from the adjoining woods, and when two or more are calling at the same 

 time, the noise, mingling with the echoes of the mountains, is really sui- 

 prising. These notes serve pretty plainly to articulate the words, whip- 

 poor-will, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis. 

 When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. To- 

 wards midnight they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight. 

 During the day, they sit in the most retired, solitary, and deep shaded parts 

 of the woods, where they repose in silence. Their food appears to be large 

 moths, grasshoppers, and such insects as frequent the bark of old rotten and 

 decaying timber. 



The nest is built like that of the night hawk, on the ground ; the young 

 have very much the same appearance, though the eggs are much darker. 

 When disturbed, the whip-poor-will rises and sails low and slowly, through 

 the woods, for thirty or forty yards, and generally settles on a low branch or 

 on the ground. Their favorite places of resort are on high and dry situa- 

 tions; in low marshy tracts of country they are seldom heard; in this they 

 differ from the night hawk, which delights in extensive sea marshes. Their 

 flight also is very dissimilar. The whip-poor-will has ranges of long and 

 strong bristles on each side of the mouth ; the night hawk is entirely desti- 

 tute of them. The bill of the whip-poor-will is twice the length of that of 

 the night hawk. The wings of the whip-poor-will are shorter by more than 

 two inches than those of the night hawk. The tail of the latter is forked, 

 that of the former is rounded. The two species differ also in size and color. 



THE CHUCK WILL'S WIDOW.* 



I his solitary bird is rarely found north of Virginia and Tennessee. It has 

 sometimes been confounded with the whip-poor-will. It has derived its 



Caprimvlgus Carolincnsis. Wilson. 



