'chuck-will's-widow.' 613 



America, it arrives in Georgia and Louisiana about the 

 middle of March, and in Virginia early in April. Like 

 the following species, it commences its singular serenade 

 oi ' chuck- loilV s-ioidmu, in the evening soon after sunset, 

 and continues it with short interruptions for several hours. 

 Towards morning, the note is also renewed, until the open- 

 ing dawn. In the day, like some wandering spirit, it re- 

 tires to secrecy and silence, as if the whole had only been 

 a disturbed dream. In a still evening this singular call 

 may be heard for half a mile, its tones being slower, 

 louder, and more full than those of the Whip-Poor-Will. 

 The species is particularly numerous in the vast forests of 

 the Mississippi, where throughout the evening its echoing 

 notes are heard in the solitary glens, and from the sur- 

 rounding and silent hills, becoming almost incessant dur- 

 ing the shining of the moon ; and at the boding sound of 

 its elfin voice, when familiar and strongly reiterated, the 

 thoughtful, superstitious savage becomes sad and pen- 

 sive. Its flight is low, and it skims only a few feet 

 above the surface of the ground, frequently settling on 

 logs and fences, from whence it often sweeps around in 

 pursuit of the flying moths and insects which constitute 

 its food. Sometimes they are seen sailing near the 

 ground, and occasionally descend to pick up a beetle, or 

 flutter lightly round the trunk of a tree in quest of some 

 insect crawling upon the bark. In rainy and gloomy 

 w^eather, they remain silent in the hollow log which affords 

 them and the bats a common roost and refuge by day. 

 When discovered in this critical situation, and without 

 the means of escape, they ruffle up their feathers, spread 

 open their enormous mouths, and utter a murmur almost 

 like the hissing of a snake, thus endeavouring, appparent- 

 ly, to intimidate their enemy when cut off" from the 

 means of escape. 



52 



