148 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



spend tlie winter in southern Florida for C. J. Pennock (MS.) has 

 stated that "in the Charlotte Harbor district a few at least appear 

 to winter. February 26, 1926, one heard calling; February 24, 1927, 

 while camping, we heard one," Arthur H. Howell (1932) states 

 that it "winters in small numbers" and gives December and Febru- 

 ary dates. K. J. Longstreet's opinion (1930) is that "the chuck- 

 will's- widow is a summer resident in north Florida and a permanent 

 resident in south Florida." Audubon considered the species a 

 permanent resident in the State, and his idea was, according to Allen 

 (1871), confirmed by "old residents," though he himself states it "is 

 not observed till about the first of March." I am obliged to spend 

 portions of every winter month in Florida, being constantly in the 

 field throughout the southern Everglades and the Keys, but it so 

 happens that I have yet to find the chuck-will's-widow during this 

 season. The wintering f)opulation is undoubtedly small and 

 scattered. 



It reaches north-central Florida about March 18 (D. J. Nicholson, 

 MS.) and appears in the coastal districts of southern Georgia a few 

 days later (T. D. Perry, MS.). In South Carolina, about Charleston, 

 it arrives anywhere from the third week in March to the first week 

 of April. The males always arrive first, followed in a few days 

 by the females. 



Courtship. — ^Little time is lost by- the chuck-will's-widow, after its 

 arrival from its winter home, in seeking a mate. Almost at once it 

 undertakes the search, and it is at such times that the observer 

 has an opportunity to see them actively in daylight. The courtship 

 performance is an interesting one and, all things considered, is not 

 difficult to observe. The outstanding characteristic is the strutting 

 pomposity of the male. He sidles up to the watching female, his 

 wings droop, the tail is widely spread, and he swells and swells 

 until it really seems that the limit of inflation is reached and another 

 fraction of distention would cause him to disintegrate like a bursting 

 bomb. Various vocal efforts are indulged in meanwhile, accom- 

 panied by quick, jerky motions. Audubon (1840) has compared this 

 phase of the proceedings to that of the domestic cock pigeon, while 

 Arthur T. Wayne (1910) likened it to a turkey gobbler's antics. 

 This latter has always seemed to me most apt, for not only does the 

 seemingly endless inflation remind one vividly of the turkey, but the 

 motions also suggest this bird. 



After this j^eriod of intense and apparently exhausting display, a 

 space of calm and quiet pervades the pair should the male have been 

 successful in his suit, and he perches placidly beside her. 



Nesting. — No semblance of a nest is constructed. The eggs are 

 2)laced on the ground upon a carpet of dead leaves, and the sitting 



