1 68 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



certainly rivals any other courtship seen beneath 

 the stars. The male struts before the object of 

 his affections, waddling along on his ridiculously 

 short legs with the sublime confidence of mas- 

 culinity. He makes queer noises, puffing out his 

 throat until he looks as if he had been choked 

 on a lemon. Doubtless these performances ap- 

 pear very fascinating in the big dark eyes of the 

 female. 



The birds roost near together during the day- 

 time, sometimes on a fallen tree but more often 

 on the ground. No attempt is made to build a 

 nest of any description, the eggs simply being de- 

 posited on the dead forest leaves, which they 

 much resemble. Two is the number laid and the 

 second appears four or five days after the first. 

 Incubation begins immediately and as a result 

 one of the young for a time is larger than its 

 fellow. 



When frightened from its eggs the Chuck- 

 will's-widow flies a short distance and with 

 cjueer cries of quack, quack, seeks to distract 

 the intruder's intention. When the nests are 

 molested it is not uncommon for the birds to 

 remove their eggs or helpless young to a distance 

 of several rods. This is accomplished by the 

 simple expedient of picking them up in the mouth 

 one at a time and flying away. In common with 

 many other species they will, if their eggs be 

 taken, lay a second setting. The usual food 

 consists of beetles, moths, and various other 

 night-flying insects. The mouth is very large for 

 the size of the bird and, when open, is two inches 

 across, thus enabling it to take in large ob- 

 jects, which perhaps accounts for the fact that 

 stomachs of these birds have been found to con- 

 tain both Hummingbirds and Sparrows. 



T. Gilbert Pe.-\rson. 



WHIP-POOR-WILL 

 Antrostomus vociferus vociferus (JVilson) 



A. O. U. Number 417 .'^ee Color Plate 65 



Other Name. — Nightjar. 



General Description. — Length, 9J j inches. Plum- 

 age, a variegation of gray, brown, black, and buflr. 

 Tail, rounded. 



Color. — Adult M.\le; General color of upper parts, 

 mixed grayish-brown and brownish-gray, minutely 

 streaked and stippled with dusky ; crown, streaked 

 with black, the streaks narrow and linear (sometimes 

 obsolete) on lateral portion, much broader and more 

 drop-shaped along center line, where usually coalesced 

 and forming an irregular stripe; shoulders with large 

 irregular spots or blotches of black, these usually 



margined, in part, with irregular narrow areas of buff, 

 the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts streaked with 

 black; middle pair of tail-feathers, brownish-gray, 

 freckled with dusky, and crossed by about seven to 

 nine broken irregular bars of blackish, the next pair 

 similar but darker; three outer flairs, extetishrly it'hitc. 

 at ends, on both webs, this decreasing in extent from 

 the third to the outermost, on which the white on 

 outer web is much less in extent than on inner web ; 

 remaining portion of these three outer feathers, brown- 

 ish-black broken by incomplete and irregular bars of 

 brownish-buf¥ ; general color of wing-coverts, light 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



WHIP-POOR-WILL ( ; nat. size) 

 Everybody knows this bird's voice 



