576 AVES—CHUCK WILL’S WIDOW. 
from the adjoming woods, and when two or more are calling at the same 
time, the noise, mingling with the echoes of the mountains, 1s really su- 
prising. These notes serve pretty plainly to articulate the words, whip- 
_poor-will, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis. 
When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. To- 
wards midnight they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight. 
During the day, they sit in the most retired, solitary, and deep shaded parts 
of the woods, where they repose in silence. Their food appears to be large 
moths, grasshoppers, and such insects as frequent the bark of old rotten and 
decaying timber. 
The nest is built like that of the night hawk, on the ground; the young 
have very much the same appearance, though the eggs are much darker. 
When disturbed, the whip-poor-will rises and sails low and slowly, through 
the woods, for thirty or forty yards, and generally settles on a low branch or 
on the ground. Their favorite places of resort are on high and dry situa- 
tions; in low marshy tracts of country they are seldom heard; in this they 
differ from the night hawk, which delights in extensive sea marshes. Their 
flight also is very dissimilar. The whip-poor-will has ranges of long and 
strong bristles on each side of the mouth; the night hawk is entirely desti- 
tute of them. The bill of tae whip-poor-will is twice the length of that of 
the night hawk. The wings of the whip-poor-will are shorter by more than 
two inches than those of the night hawk. The tail of the latter is forked, 
that of the former is rounded. The two species differ also in size and color. 

THE CHUCK WILL’S WIDOW. 

Luts solitary bird is rarely found north of Virginia and Tennessee. It has 
sometimes.been confsunded with the whip-poor-will. It has derived its 

Caprimulgus Carolinensis, WiLson. 
7 
