146 Bird - Lore 



In many of the southern states Hves the Chuck-will's-widow, which also 

 bears the name given to its call. It is larger than the Whip-poor-will, but, like 

 it, is nocturnal in its habits. So closely do the two birds resemble each other, 

 both in physical structure and in habits, that naturalists tell us they are near 

 relatives, and, in fact, they classify them as belonging to the same family. 

 Many of the people who live in the forests where these birds are found do not 

 know much about the scientific study of birds, and usually believe that these 

 two night-prowlers are one and the same birds. They will tell you that the 

 Chuck-will's-widow is the male Whip-poor-will. 



Down in the lake country of central Florida, as a boy, I used to listen to 

 the Chuck-will's-widow calling on summer nights. When the winter months 

 came, however, the cries that came up from the deep woods of an evening were 

 different; for at that season these birds were all gone, and their places taken 

 by Whip-poor-wills, which had arrived from the more northern states to pass 

 the winter where snows never fall, and frost seldom comes. 



Another closely related bird is often confused in the public mind with the 

 Whip-poor-will. This is the Nighthawk, or "Bull-bat." Very many persons 



think there is no difference in these birds, but there is a marked 

 s ig aw difference, both in appearance and habits. The Nighthawk's 



wings are much longer, and, when folded, reach well beyond 

 the end of the tail, while the Whip-poor-will's wings do not extend even so 

 far as the end of the tail. The Nighthawk flies about in the early evening, long 

 before sunset, and may sometimes be seen, even at noontime, hawking about 

 for insects. It often feeds hundreds of feet in the air, and may remain on the 

 wing for an hour or more at a time. On the other hand, its cousin of the shadows 

 only comes out of its seclusion so late in the evening that it is difficult to see it, 

 and it captures its food by short flights near the ground. 



The Whip-poor-will, and the other two birds I have mentioned, belong to 

 the family of birds called Goatsuckers. They have very weak feet and legs, 

 and so move very slowly and feebly when on the ground. They sit lengthwise 

 on a limb, fence-rail, or other object on which they chance to perch, and very 

 rarely use the crosswise position so commonly adopted by the perching birds. 

 The mouth in this group is one of the wonders of the bird-world because of its 

 enormous size. All around the upper lip is arranged a series of long, stiff, 

 curving hairs, which form a sort of broad scoop-net in which the bird entangles 

 and seizes its insect-prey, for it always feeds while on the wing, and the agile 

 gnats a.nd moths might often be able to dodge or slip out of the very small 

 beak possessed by these birds were it not for the wide fringe of bristles. 



Few birds are more valuable to the farmer than is the Whip- 

 Its Food poor-will. It never does him any harm in any way, for it does 



not eat his cherries and strawberries, nor does it pull up his 

 newly planted corn, nor eat his millet seed. It does not fill up the drainage- 

 pipes of his house with sticks and leaves, does not eat his chicken-feed, nor catch 



