Whippoorwills 551 



The Whippoorwills (Antrostomus} are very closely related to the true Goat- 

 suckers (Caprimulgus), so closely, in fact, that many ornithologists deny the 

 possibility of separating them generically, but following the American inter- 

 pretation they are here regarded as distinct. The best-known, and the Whip- 

 poorwill par excellence (A. vociferus), is a common summer visitor throughout 

 eastern North America, nesting from the Gulf States to New Brunswick and 

 Manitoba, and retiring in winter from the Gulf States southward. It is brownish 

 and grayish, much mottled and otherwise varied with black above, the primaries 

 black with broken rufous bars, the tail irregularly barred with black and mottled 

 with whitish or buffy, the terminal half of the outer three white in the male, 

 while the under parts, with the exception of a narrow white band across the 

 upper breast, are cream-buff barred irregularly with blackish; the length is 

 about ten inches. The Whippoorwill is a familiar bird to every farmer boy 

 throughout its range, though it is much oftener heard than seen, and in fact is 

 so frequently mistaken for the Nighthawk that many otherwise well-informed 

 persons regard them as the same. They are, of course, perfectly distinct, as could 

 be easily seen if the birds were held in the hand ; but the Nighthawk may always 

 be distinguished when on the wing by the conspicuous white patch on the pri- 

 maries, which "has the appearance of being a hole in the bird's wing." The 

 favorite resorts of the Whippoorwill are dense, shady thickets, bordering on 

 clearings and river valleys, rocky and brush-covered hillsides, and rolling country 

 interspersed with woods and cultivated tracts; here it passes the hours of day- 

 light in shady retreats either on the ground or low limbs of trees or on or under 

 rocks. When the sun goes down its day begins, and leaving its retreat, it passes 

 out to the edges of the clearings or bushy fields, where it catches its food of night- 

 flying insects, resting now and then on some fence rail or stump and giving voice 

 to its note. The two handsome dull white, lilac-and-brown-spotted eggs are 

 deposited on the ground or leaves in woods or thickets. Rather closely 

 related, but two inches longer and with the basal half of the rictal bristles pro- 

 vided with lateral filaments, is the Chuck-will's Widow (A. carolinensis] of the 

 eastern United States from southern Virginia to southern Illinois and southward. 

 Its haunts and habits are similar to those of its relative, but its call is different, 

 resembling the words chuck-will' s-widow repeated often rapidly for two or three 

 minutes at a time. While its food consists principally of insects such as beetles, 

 winged ants, and moths, it is well authenticated that it sometimes aspires to 

 larger game, as the remains of small birds such as Sparrows, Hummingbirds, etc., 

 have been found in its stomach. Several other species and subspecies are some- 

 times recognized, but lack of space forbids mention of them. 



True Goatsuckers. We have now come to the last and by far the largest 

 genus of the subfamily, namely, Caprimulgus, or the so-called true Goatsuckers, 

 of which there are hardly less than sixty species. As here restricted, they are 

 exclusively developed in the Old World, over which they enjoy a wide range. 

 Of the great number only one, the European Nightjar (C. europceus), occurs, 

 except as a very rare straggler, in the British Islands, being found also throughout 

 Europe and southern Siberia, wintering in Africa. It arrives in England from 



