42 BULLETIN 86, XTNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



will die very soon after. These Birds, as I have been credibly iuformed. breed 

 exactly as the Ooat-Siicker before mentioned, which is thus : they lay only two 

 eggs of a dark greenish colour, spotted and scrawled about with black, in the 

 plain beaten paths, without the least sign of any nest, upon which they sit very 

 close, and will suffer a very near approach before they fly off. 



Kalm/ who calls the bird " Hwipperiwill," gives much the same 

 sort of an account. Edwards,^ Latham,^ and BufFon,* all give a good 

 description of the nighthawk, but reproduce Catesby's account of the 

 habits of the whip-poor-will, Edwards giving it in Catesby's ( = Clay- 

 ton's) own language. Pennant's description of his " Longwinged 

 Goatsucker " ^ relates wholly to Chordeiles virginianus^ but his plate 

 is Setochalcis vocifera. Brisson gives a detailed description,^ which 

 applies wholly to the nighthawk. It is interesting to note how 

 closely all these subsequent authors have copied Catesby, with very 

 little or no additional information ; except Brisson, whose long, care- 

 ful description is evidently original. Since in all these accounts the 

 portions descriptive of the plumage and other specific characters 

 relate entirely to the nighthawk, the name Caprimulgus virginianus 

 of Gmelin has a clear title. 



The Caprimulgus popetue of Vieillot,'^ from Nova Scotia, is, of 

 course, a synonym of Caprimulgus virginianus Gmelin, being many 

 years posterior, though a number of authors have used it for the 

 species. Wilson's C aprimadgus americanus^ from eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania, is also the same. There seems to be no reasonable doubt con- 

 cerning the identification of Caprimulgus jaspideus Merrem" and 

 Caprirrmilgus variegatus Vieillot,^" both from Paraguay, for the ac- 

 companying descriptions agree very closely with Chordeiles vir- 

 ginianus virginianus. 



As will be seen by the quotation from Gmelin given above,^^ Vir- 

 ginia is mentioned as the particular part of North America in which 

 this bird was supposed to be found. Most of the other authors whom 

 Gmelin cites give Virginia as the locality also. They mention 

 western Virginia especially, but since this is so evidently based on 

 the account of habits, which are plainly those of Setochalcis vocifera, 

 and since the specimens that served as the basis for the descrip- 



1 Resa Norra Amer., vol. 3, 1761, p. 93. 



2 Nat. Hist. Birds, vol. 2, 1747, p. 63, pi. 63. 



* Gen. Synop. Birds, vol. 2, pt. 2, 1783, p. 595. 



* Buffon, Hist. Nat. des Oiseaux, vol. 6, 1779, p. 534. 

 B Arctic Zool., vol. 2, 1785, p. 436. 



•Ornith., vol. 2, 1760, p. 477. 

 ' Ois. Amer. Sept., vol. 1, 1807, p. 56, pi. 24. 

 8 Amer. Ornith., vol. 5, 1812, p. 65, pi. 40. 



» In Ersch and Gruber, Aligem. Encycl. Wissensch. und Kiinste, sec. 1, vol. 15, 1826, 

 p. 148. 



lONouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., 2d. ed., vol. 10, 1817, p. 238, 

 ^ See p. 40. 



