304 INSESSORES. 



note, for a long space at time, and without seeming to draw 

 breath. 



The CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW, C. Carolinensis, is an interesting 

 American Night-jar, but rarely found beyond Mississippi or the 

 Carolinas on the sea-board. It is the southern species of the 

 United States. In sound and articulation, it seems to express 

 the words of its name, putting the chief emphasis upon the last 

 word. Its head and back are of a dark brown color, mottled 

 with red, and streaked sidewise with black ; the lower parts are 

 of a dull reddish yellow. The length of the male is twelve and 

 three-fourths inches; of the female thirteen and one-fourth 

 inches. The notes of this bird are seldom heard in cloudy 

 weather, and never when it rains. It forms no nest ; its eggs 

 are oval, of a dull olive speckled with brown, and are placed in 

 a little space carelessly scratched amongst the dead leaves. If 

 the eggs are touched, both parents remove them to some other 

 place of deposit in the woods, where they cannot easily be again 

 discovered. 



The WHIP-POOR-WILL, C. vociferus, (Lat. vox, voice ; fero^to 

 bear or give forth,) is seen at the approach of spring in most 

 parts of the Western and Southern States, and in small tracts, 

 thinly covered with timber, in the Middle States also. Like its 

 near relative, the Chuck-wilPs-widow, it is not often seen during 

 the day, except when discovered casually in a state of repose ; 

 and it is much distressed by being forced to face a brilliant light. 

 In the dusk of the evening, however, this bird becomes active 

 and diligent in securing its insect prey. Its flight is light and 

 noiseless, the motion of its wings only causing a gentle undula- 

 tion in the air, scarcely noticed by a person a few feet distant. 

 An imagined resemblance of its notes to the syllables whip-poor- 

 will, has given this bird that common name. Its song is pro- 

 longed for several hours after sunset. The male bird is nine 

 and one-half inches long. (See Chart.) 

 Steatornis, (Gr. sUar, fat; ornis,a bird.) 



The birds which this term includes were ranked by Cuvier in 

 the genus Podargus, but on account of their peculiar food and 

 habits, were erected by Humboldt into a separate genus. 



The GuACHARO-BiED, S. Caripensis, (belonging to Caripe,) 

 takes its name from the mountain of Guacharo, near the valley 

 of Caripe, South America. It has a wedge-shaped tail, is about 

 the size of a common fowl, and covered with plumage of a 

 brownish gray color, mixed with small furrowed lines and black 

 dots. The Guacharo mountain is noted for its large cave, pierced 

 in the vertical profile of the rock, eighty feet broad and seventy- 



