438 CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW. 



so that whatever superstitious notions they may entertain of the 

 one are probably applied to both. 



This singular genus of birds, formed to subsist on the supera- 

 bundance of nocturnal insects, are exactly and surprisingly fitted 

 for their peculiar mode of life. Their flight is low, to accomo- 

 date itself to their prey; silent, that they may be the better con- 

 cealed, and sweep upon it unawares; their sight most acute in 

 the dusk, when such insects are abroad; their evolutions some- 

 thing like those of the bat, quick and sudden; their mouths ca- 

 pable of prodigious expansion, to seize with more certainty, 

 and furnished with long branching hairs, or bristles, serving as 

 palisadoes to secure what comes between them. Reposing so 

 much during the heats of day they are much infested with ver- 

 min, particularly about the head, and are provided with a comb 

 on the inner edge of the middle claw, with which they are often 

 employed in ridding themselves of these pests, at least when in 

 a state of captivity. Having no weapons of defence except their 

 wings, their chief security is in the solitude of night, and in 

 their colour and close retreats by day; the former so much re- 

 sembling that of dead leaves of various hues as not to be readily 

 distinguished from them even when close at hand. 



The Chuck-wilPs-widow lays its eggs, two in number, on the 

 ground, generally, and I believe always, in the woods; it makes 

 no nest; the eggs are of a dull olive colour, sprinkled with dark- 

 er specks, are about as large as those of a Pigeon, and exactly 

 oval. Early in September they retire from the United States. 



This species is twelve inches long, and twenty -six in extent; 

 bill yellowish, tipt with black; the sides of the mouth are armed 

 with numerous long bristles, strong, tapering, and furnished 

 with finer hairs branching from each; cheeks and chin rust co- 

 lour, specked with black; over the eye extends a line of small 

 whitish spots; head and back very deep brown, powdered with 

 cream, rust and bright ferruginous, and marked with long rag- 

 ged streaks of black; scapulars broadly spotted with deep black, 

 bordered with cream, and interspersed with whitish; the plu- 

 mage of that part of the neck which falls over the back is long, 



