GOATSUCKERS 



16: 



feathers with a center series of very irregular broken 

 spots of black, which often show a tendency toward 

 forming broken bars which become less distinct, or 

 obsolete, toward edge of each web; three outer feathers 

 (on each side) with terminal half or more of inner web 

 white, this encroaching on inner portion of outer web, 

 the remainder of these feathers coarsely and irregu- 

 larly barred with black and dull tawny ; the latter 

 largely jiredominating on terminal half of outer web, 

 especially on the second and third, and sometimes 

 nearly uniform, the tawny extending across tip of 

 inner web and even tingeing the white along inner edge ; 

 wing-coverts with large, irregular spots or blotches of 

 black and with a transverse series of large buff spots 

 across middle portion ; primaries and primary coverts 

 dull black, coarsely and irregularly spotted with tawny, 

 the spots much less distinct and more broken on inner 

 webs, which are largely uniform dusky basally ; lores, 

 space around eye, sides of head, cheeks, chin, and 

 upper throat, dull ochraceous, narrowly barred with 

 dusky; lower throat, deep buff to huffy-white, form- 

 ing a conspicuous transverse band, the front rather 

 broadly barred with black; chest and breast brown finely 

 streaked or stippled with dusky (the upper chest more 



closely barred), the center of the breast with several 

 irregular large spots or blotches of buff or huffy-white; 

 abdomen and flanks, dull buff irregularly barred with 

 dusky and with occasional triangular spots of the 

 general ground color; under tail-coverts, clearer buff, 

 irregularly and very variably barred with dusky ; bill, 

 brown; iris, dark brown; feet, brownish. Adult 

 Female: Similar to the adult male but without the 

 white areas on inner webs of outer tail-feathers, which 

 are irregularly marbled or mottled with black on a 

 light tawny-buff ground, both webs of the three outer 

 feathers (on each side) being tipped with tawny-buff. 



Nest and Eggs. — Eggs : 2, creamy or pinkish-white, 

 blotched, niarliled, and spotted with pale buff, browns 

 and lilac ; laid on the ground in thickets, in swampy, 

 tree-shaded spots, or in pine groves. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States; breeding from 

 southern \'irginia and southern Oliio (?), southwestern 

 Indiana, southern Illinois, southern Missouri, and south- 

 eastern Kansas southward to the Gulf States (Florida 

 to Texas) ; west to central Te.\as ; in winter south to 

 Bahamas, West Indies, Central America, and Colombia; 

 occasional to Maryland, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, 

 Ontario, West Virginia, and south-central Kansas. 



The largest member in the United States of 

 that interesting family, the Goatsuclcers, is 

 the Chuck-will's-widow. In its summer range 

 from \irginia to Illinois southward it is con- 

 fined chiefly to the coastal plain in the East and 

 the Mississippi basin in the Middle West. It 

 appears not to go into the mountain or Piedmont 

 sections. In winter it retire.; to our southern 

 borders and in some localities of Florida is very 

 abundant at this season. In general appearance 

 and habits it much resembles the better known 

 \N'hip-poor-will. 



In returning from its winter home the Chuck- 

 will's-widow reaches South Carolina about 



March 25 and southern Virginia about April 10. 

 We first become aware of its arrival some warm 

 spring evening when the loud cry, from which it 

 gets its name, issues from the thicket or wood 

 lot, for the bird is rarely seen or heard by day. 

 There is a wide-spread belief among the people 

 of the South that this bird is the male Whip- 

 poor-will, although it is twice as bulky as that 

 species. Its cry is variously interpreted as Chip- 

 fdl-oiit-a-zvJiite oak, Tzvixt-hell-and-n.'hite oak, 

 and various other phrases which usually end in 

 the words " white oak." 



The males are supposed to arrive first, the 

 females following four or five days later. Then 

 begins a love-making that for grotesque antics 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW (\ nat. size) 

 A mysterious bird of the night, often heard but seldom seen 



