THE WHIPPOORWILL. 119 



Family CAPRIMULGIDiE. The Goat-suckers. 

 Suh-Family Caprimulgin^. 



Bill very short, triangular, the culmen less than one-sixth the gape ; the anterior 

 toes united at the base by a membrane; the inner anterior toe with three joints, the 

 others with four, all with distinct scutelloe above ; the toe much elongated, its middle 

 claw pectinated on the inner edge ; hind toe directed a little more than half for- 

 wards ; tarsi partly feathered superiorly ; the bill more or less bristled, the nostrils 

 separated, rather nearer the commissure than the culmen; plumage soft, lax, and 

 owl-like; primary quills, ten; secondaries, eleven or twelve. 



ANTROSTOMUS, Gould. 



Antrostomus, GouLU. Icones Avium (1B38), Agassiz. 



Bill remarkably small, with tubular nostrils, and the gape with long, stitf, some- 

 times pectinated, bristles; wings long, somewhat rounded, second quill longest, the 

 primaries emarginated; tail rounded; plumage loose and soft. 



ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. — Bonaparte. 



The ■Whippoorwill. 



Caprimulgus vodferus, Wilson. Am. Orn., V. (1812) 71; Aud. Orn. Biog., I. 

 (1832) 443; V. 405. 



Antrostomus vociferns, Bonaparte. List, 1838. 



Description. 



Bristles without lateral filaments; wing about six and a half inches long; top of 

 the head ashy-brown, longitudinally streaked with black; terminal half of the tail 

 feathers (except the four central) dirty-white on both outer and inner webs ; iris dark- 

 hazel. Female, without white on the tail. 



Length, ten inches ; wing, six and a half. 



THIS familiar species is a summer inhabitant of New 

 England : it arrives from the South about the second 

 week in May. Its habits are not well known, as it is not a 

 very common species, and it inhabits the most secluded spots 

 in the deep woods ; bu.t its song is well known to all, as are 

 its nocturnal wanderings in search for insect food. This 

 bird, as also the Night-hawk, is, to the farmer, one of the 

 most valuable among the feathered tribes : its food consists 

 almost entirely of night-flying Lepidoptera, and the number 

 of these insects destroyed is immense. 



