45 



mouths are perliaps even larger than tliose of Nighthawks. 

 They swallow, with ease, the largest of the moths and 

 sphinges and relish equally well small gnats or winged ants. 

 Chuck-wills-widows, larger members of the same genus, 

 found commonly in ':he Southern States are even more vor- 

 acious and devour anything that happens to be a-wing at 

 night and that will go in their enormous mouths ; frequently 



Fig. 38. WHIP-POOR-WILL. 



Notice how perfectly she blends into the surrounding leaves. 

 The living bird as seen by the eye shows no plainer than it does 

 here. 



the remains of small birds are found in their stomachs, prob- 

 ably caught while flying from one perch to another. 



Whip-poor-wills are very noisy on warm, clear, still 

 nights. One night I pitched my tent beside a juniper tree 

 on a point of land making out into a beautiful lake. This 

 particular tree happened to be the favorite lookout perch 

 of a Whip-poor-will, or else he was attarcted to it by the 



