224 ScientifiG Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society, 



date until the end of September they continued to pass in con-- 

 siderable numbers whenever the weather was fine. Their flight 

 at this time was swift, steady, and protracted, at a height of about 

 twenty feet from the prairie, which they followed in all its undu- 

 lations ; occasionally however one would shoot up into the air, but 

 almost immediately descend to the original level. Some idea of 

 the magnitude of this migration may be formed v/hen I say that I 

 have frequently counted a score pass a given spot in a few minutes, 

 and all singly, for it is very rare to see even two together. During 

 the greater part of this time the wind was due south, but for a 

 few days it came from the opposite quarter with rain and gloomy 

 weather, and the migration totally ceased during its continuance. 



CifiETUKA, sp. (?) — I saw swifts several times during the autumns 

 of 1879-80 hawking above the river, but they always kept at 

 so great a height that I was unable to get a specimen ; they 

 never uttered a sound that I could hear, and for these reasons Mr. 

 Ridgway thinks it probable that they may have belonged to the 

 western form, G. vauxi. 



Antrostomus carolinensis (Gmel.) Ghuck-WilVs-Widow. — 

 This species, which is generally called " Whip-Poor- Will " here, is a 

 common summer visitor to the county, frequenting the woodlands, 



where its monotonous cry of " Chuck widow-the-widow " 



may be heard incessantly every evening from shortly before sun- 

 set until about an hour after, when it ceases for that night. They 

 arrive during April, and remain with us to the middle of Septem- 

 ber, but are rarely heard calling after June. I never could see one 

 during the day-time, which they are said to pass in hollow trees, 

 but they continue feeding all through the night, at least when 

 there is bright moonlight. Their cry is uttered from the upper 

 branches of a dead tree, never while in flight ; and their food con- 

 sists of large moths and beetles. 



Phal^noptilus nuttalli (Aud.) Foor- Will. — This is a scarce 

 summer visitor, frequenting the very densest thickets of the river 

 bottom, where they are very hard to obtain, as well from the 

 nature of the localities which they haunt, as that they crouch upon 

 the ground among dead leaves and fragments of rotten wood, to 

 which materials their colours assimilate so closely that it is quite 

 impossible for the eye to distinguish them. They lie during the 

 day-time until almost trodden on, and even when roused again and 



