EASTERN WHIPPOORWILL 171 



to "light pinkish cinnamon" on the crown and abdomen; it matches 

 the dead leaves on which it is hatched. 



The juvenai plumage begins to grow at an early age. Ridgway 

 (1914) says that the young male is "similar to the adult male in 'pat- 

 tern' and coloration of lateral rectrices, as well as of primaries and 

 primary coverts, but rest of plumage quite different, the wing- 

 coverts and scapulars deep brownish buff or clay color, the former 

 with coarse and irregular small spots of black, the latter with very 

 large irregular spots of balck, the under parts barred with dusky 

 on a brownish buffy ground and, like most of the upper parts, with- 

 out fine vermiculations, the pileum spotted instead of streaked with 

 black, and the band across lower throat indistinct, more or less 

 broken by dusky barring, and buffy instead of white." The young 

 female, he says, is "similar to the young male, but three lateral rec- 

 trices broadly tipped with ochraceous-buffy instead of having a large 

 white distal area." 



A young bird in juvenai plumage, nearly grown, collected in 

 Massachusetts in July, is like the young male described above, ex- 

 cept that the feathers of the interscapular region and the median 

 wing coverts are from "ochraceous-buff" to "light ochraceous-bluff," 

 with a narrow shaft streak and a conspicuous subterminal small spot 

 of black. 



During July and August the juvenai contour plumage is shed, the 

 Juvenal wings and tail being retained, and a first winter plumage is 

 acquired, in which the contour plumage closely resembles that of 

 the adult. This is worn until the following summer, when a com- 

 plete molt produces the fully adult plumage. Both young and old 

 birds have a complete annual molt between July and September.] 



Food. — The earliest report on the food of the whippoorwill is that 

 of Wilson (1831), who was the first writer to show that the whip- 

 poorwill and the nighthawk are different birds. He says: "Their 

 food appears to be large moths, grasshoppers, pismires, and such in- 

 sects as frequent the bark of old rotten and decaying timber. They 

 are also expert in darting after winged insects." 



Knight (1908) puts the following items on the whippoorwill's bill 

 of fare : "Their diet," he says, "would seem to be entirely insectivorous 

 and among the various things I have known them to eat are Sphinx 

 moths of various species. Actios lima, Samia cecropia, Samia colv/mhia, 

 Telea polyphemus, and a great variety of species of Noctuidae, also 

 grasshoppers, crickets, mosquitoes, caddis flies, and in fact almost 

 any sort of insect available." 



Bendire (1895) reports that "in the Western States, which are 

 sometimes ovemm by swarms of Rocky Mountain Locusts, it also 

 feeds largely on these when abundant." 



