148 U. S. p. R R. EXP. AND SURVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



• ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. 



Whippoorwill. 



CaprhitUgus rocifcrus, Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 71 ; pi. xli, f. 1, 2, 3.— Add. Orn. Biog. I, 1833, 443 : V, 



4115 ; pi. 85.— Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 155 ; pi. 42. 

 .inlrostomus vocifcrus, Bonap. List, 1838.— Cassin, J.A.N. Sc. 11, 1852, 122.— Ib, III. I, 1855, 236. 

 Capnimilgus virginianus, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. 1, 1807, 55 ; pi. xxv. 

 " Caprimulgus clamator, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. X, 1817, 234," (Cassiv.) 



Sp. Ch ■ — ^Bristles without lateral filaments. Wing about 6j inches long. Top of the head ashy brown, longitudinally 

 streaked with black. Terminal half of the tail feathers (except the four central) dirty while on both outer and inner webs. 

 Length, 10 inches ; wing, 6.50. 



Female without white on the tail. 



Hab. — Eastern United States to the plains. 



In this species the hristles at the hase of the bill, though stiff and long, are without the 

 lateral filaments of the chuck-will's widow. The wings are rather short ; the second quill 

 longest ; the first intermediate between the third and fourth. The tail is rounded ; the outer 

 feathers about half an inch shorter than the middle ones. 



The colors of this species are very difficult to describe, although there is quite a similarity to 

 those of A. carolinensis, from which its greatly inferior size will at once distinguish it. The 

 top of the head is an ashy gray, finely mottled, with a broad median stripe of black ; all the 

 feathers with a narrow stripe of the same along their centres. The back and rump are some- 

 what similar, though of a difi'erent shade. There is a collar of white on the under side of the 

 neck, posterior to which the upper part of the breast is finely mottled, somewhat as on the top 

 of the head. The belly is dirty white, with indistinct transverse bands and mottlings of brown. 

 The wings are brown ; each quill with a series of round rufous spots on both webs, quite con- 

 spicuous on the outer side of the primaries when the wings are folded. The terminal half of 

 the outer three tail feathers is of a dirty white. 



The female is smaller ; the collar on the throat is tinged with fulvous. The conspicuous 

 white patch of the tail is wanting, the tips only of the outer three feathers being of a pale 

 brownish fulvous. 



There is a prevalent impression among the unlearned in many parts of the country that the 

 whippoorwill and the night hawk are identical. They are, however, widely different, both 

 generically and specifically, as will be evident to any one on a comparison of specimens. Thus 

 in the whippoorwill the mouth is margined by enormous stiff' bristles more than an inch long ; 

 the wings are short, not reaching the end of the tail, which is very broad and rounded. There 

 are bars of rufous spots on the wing quills, but no white whatever. The tail is white beneath 

 for its terminal half. In the night hawk (CJiordeiles popetiie) the bristles of the bill are 

 scarcely appreciable ; the wings are sharp pointed, longer than the tail, uniformly brown, with 

 a broad spot of white across the middle of the long quills, and without any rufous spots. The 

 tail is rather narrow, forked, or emarginate, and with only a small square blotch of white near 

 the end. The most striking feature next to the difference of the bristles of the bill is, perhaps, 

 the absence of the white wing spot of the one and its presence in the other — characters found in 

 both sexes. 



The precise range of this species to the westward is not ascertained. On the upper Missouri 

 and westward it is replaced by iheA . nuttalli. 



The first name of Vieillot for this species, although actually prior to that of Wilson, cannot be 

 made use of, as it heads a description and figure relating to both Antrostomns and Chordeiles. 



