186 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



417 Antrostomus vociferus (Wilson). 

 Whip-poor-will. 



PLATE 40. 



Adult male. Length, 9.50-10. Wing, 5.50-6.50. Head with bold black 

 streaks on a grayish ground (color composed of very fine black and white mot- 

 tlings) ; back mottled with ochraceous and black with several large black spots; 

 middle tail feathers and rump, blackish, minutely mottled with pale gray; 

 three outer tail feathers, black basally, white terminally ; wings, black, with 

 broken rusty bars ; under parts mottled with black and pale buff, a white half 

 collar across the throat. 



Adult female. Similar, but the three outer tail feathers black, narrowly 

 edged with buff, and throat band buff instead of white. 



No nestj eggs, two, dull white, with pale grayish blotches, laid on the dead 

 leaves in woods ; size, 1.50 x .85. 



Common summer resident, but in many counties local, probably 

 most abundant in the pine barren region. Arrives April 27th, departs 

 October 1st. 



The Whip-poor-wills are especially abundant through the swamps of 

 the pine barrens, where they begin to be active at dusk, coming out into 

 the clearings and chasing one another about, now alighting on a low 

 branch, now on the fence or hitching post, and again on the ground or 

 doorstep, and every few moments repeating rapidly the "whip-poor- 

 will, whip-poor-will;" there is a preliminary "chok" which is only 

 heard when close to the bird. I have lain awake at night, close to the 

 edge of a clearing where these birds were calling, and counted upwards 

 of thirty successive repetitions of the call before the performer would 

 pause. In the daytime they are occasionally flushed from the ground 

 in swamps and woodlands. 



They are wholly insectivorous. 



420 Chordeiles virginianus (Gmelin). 



Nighthawk. 



PLATE 41. 



Adult male. Length, 9-10. Wing, 7.50-8.25. Above, black, irregularly mot- 

 tled with white and buff ; white marks more numerous on the wings ; primaries, 

 black, the five outer ones with a broad band of pure white across the middle of 



