VI CAPRIMULGIDAE 417 
wing, and steal upon the listener noiselessly with the mouth 
widely opened. The voice is generally hollow, but is described 
in various cases as a “croak,” a “loud shrill ery,” a “sad whistle,” 
a “jarring note,” or a “moan”; while the American Whip-poor- 
Will (Antrostomus vociferus), Chuck-Will’s-widow (A. carolinensis), 
and Poor- Will (Phalaenoptilus),as well as the Tasmanian More-pork 
(Podargus cuviert), are so called from the sounds they rapidly 
utter. The second of these is said to be silent when breeding, 
contrary to the habit of our Nightjar. The food consists as a 
rule of insects, and especially beetles, captured in the air; but 
the Podargidae are asserted to pick Phasmidae and Cicadidae off 
the trees, and even to eat fruit or mice.' 
Most Nightjars make no nest, but lay one or two white, 
yellowish, or pinkish eggs, beautifully marbled or scrawled with 
black, gray, brown, or violet, on the ground in open spots, 
frequently shaded by trees, ferns, or gorse. More rarely lichen- 
covered rocks or flat house-tops are chosen.  Phalaenoptilus has 
white eggs, like those of the Podargidae, among which Podarqus 
makes a flat, loose structure of twigs and grass upon some branch to 
contain its complement of three, and Batrachostomus deposits one on 
a peculiar pad of brown or greyish down, which is fixed to a bough 
and is at times based on a little bark, lichen, moss, or leaf-refuse.” 
Aegotheles lays from three to five in hollow trees, the parent hissing 
if caught upon them. Eggs of Ae. wallaci are stated to shew 
pale streaks. Nyctibius appears to breed in hollows of branches 
or stumps, and not on the ground.’ Nightjars sit very closely, 
and are said to remove the contents of the nest if disturbed; the 
young, though hatched helpless, quickly learn to escape from 
danger; while the parents occasionally feign lameness to divert 
attention from them. The males sometimes incubate. 
The superstitious of all classes are inclined to view these birds 
with dread, a fact due to their nocturnal habits and Owl-like 
aspect, coupled with their strange utterances and sudden appari- 
tions. The Indians of Central and South America think that 
they portend serious evil, but refuse to kall them; while in Kng- 
land gamekeepers and others are only too ready to shoot them 
under the unfair designation of “ Night-hawk.” 
Fam. VIII. Caprimulgidae.—Of this group some eighty species 
as Steatornis does 
1 H. Gadow, in A. Newton’s Dict. Birds, 1893, p.69. * J.f.0. 1885, p. 341, pl. 4. 
3 Cf. Gosse, Birds of Jamaica, 1847, pp. 47, 48; Goeldi, Zbis, 1896, pp. 299-305. 
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