140 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



Like the whippoorwill, it lays its eggs directly on 

 the ground (sometimes on the flat roofs of houses) 

 and particularly in open stony pastures with a south- 

 ern outlook. 



In August and later they seem attracted to towns 

 and their immediate neighborhood, and often dart 

 down into the streets as familiarly as a chimney- 

 swift. Late in the summer they seem to be almost 

 gregarious, and sometimes a hundred or more will 

 be at one time in sight. They are now migrating. 



The Chuck-will's-widow is a Southern species 

 that does not venture north of Virginia. Its habits 

 are essentially those of the whippoorwill, the differ- 

 ence in the " song," as indicated by the bird's common 

 name, being the most marked variation. Taken to- 

 gether, these are three most curious birds, and it is 

 not strange that considerable superstition is con- 

 nected with them in the minds of unlearned people. 



There are four Swifts in the United States, allied 

 in habits and familiar through their abundance to the 

 people of the districts they inhabit. In the Eastern 

 or Atlantic seaboard States the omnipresent Chimney- 

 swallow is known to every one. It is a migratory bird, 

 coming early in spring and staying until late. The 

 statement of Nuttall that they all disappear about the 

 first week in August is now quite an error and prob- 

 ably a slip of the pen. Warren records them as late 

 as October 20, and I have seen them as late as No- 

 vember 10. Their coming is fairly regular, and when 

 here they at once settle into the routine that seems 

 to us outsiders fearfully tiresome. They select their 

 chimney (or a hollow tree in remote, unsettled places), 



