THE CHUCK- WILL'S WIDOW. 173 



vested in his remembrance, depends very greatly on the 

 idiosyncrasy of his own mind, or on some peculiar condi- 

 tions of thought or feeling with which that particular 

 object was associated. That which sent such a thrill of 

 delight through your heart, is to him a mere fact, and 

 perhaps a fact of very little value. For the thing may be 

 a very little matter in itself ; it is the time, the place, the 

 association, the anticipation that makes it what it is. Let 

 me adduce a few examples. 



Living for years in Newfoundland and Canada, Wilson's 

 American Ornithology had become almost as familiar to 

 me as my alphabet, and when at length I travelled into 

 the Southern States, many of the birds which do not ex- 

 tend their visits to the north had become objects of eager 

 interest to me. Prominent among these was that night- 

 jar* whose nocturnal utterances are thought to repeat 

 the words, " chuck- will's widow." I kno- not what made 

 this particular bird so interesting ; perhaps the singularly 

 true resemblance to the human voice of its cry ; perhaps 

 the solemn hour of its occurrence, for night-sounds have 

 always an element of romance about them ; perhaps the 

 rarity of a sight of the bird ; perhaps the superstitions 

 with which it is invested ; perhaps all of these combined ; 

 or perhaps none of them ; I cannot tell ; but so it was : 

 I ardently desired to hear the chuck-will's widow. 



I went to the South, and arrived in the hill-country of 

 Alabama as spring was merging into the early summer. 

 I had not been domiciled many days, when one night I 



* Caprimulgus Carolinensis. 



