164 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Antrostomus vociferus vociferus (Wilson) 

 Whippoorwill 



Plate 63 



Capri mulgus vociferus WUson. Amer. Om. 1812. 5:71. pi. 41, figs. 1-3 



DeKay. Zool. of N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 32, fig. 59 

 Antrostomus vociferus vociferus A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 



p. 196. No. 417 



antrostomus, Gr., ctvTpov, cave, and aTotia, mouth, referring to the tremendously- 

 capacious fissirostral gape; vociferus, Lat., vociferous, noisy 



Description. Bill extremely short and depressed; the gape enormous; 

 corners of the mouth bordered with long, recurved bristles; eyes large; 

 head broad; wings long and pointed; taU. long, rounded, of 10 feathers; 

 feet small. and weak; the tarsus partly feathered; the plumage blended 

 brownish with brownish gray, black, ocherous and buffy. Male: Outer 

 3 tail feathers tipped with white for half their length; white hand across the 

 throat. Female: The tips of outer tail feathers and neckband ocherous 

 or buffy instead of white. General impression of the Whippoorwill is of 

 a mottled dark brown bird like the color of an old decayed log, and when 

 resting quietly on the leaves or rotten wood in the shady forest it is practi- 

 cally indistinguishable; but when the male bird springs up in flight, the 

 white tips of the outer tail feathers make him very conspicuous. 



Length 9.5-10 inches; extent 15-16; wing 5.8-6.9; tail 4.6-5.5; bill .36. 



Distribution. The Whippoorwill inhabits eastern North America from 

 Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia south to Louisiana and Georgia, and 

 winters from the Gulf States to Honduras. In New York it is found in 

 all parts of the State, but is local in distribution, preferring the wilder 

 swamps, gulleys and hillsides to the more settled districts. It is a summer 

 resident, however, from Long Island to Chautauqua county and from 

 Westchester county to the northern limits of the State. In the Adiron- 

 dacks it is confined mostly to the edges of the wilderness and is not found 

 in the depths of the spruce forests, but invades the river valleys and clear- 

 ings as far as Elk lake, Keene valley. Lake Placid, Saranac and the Fulton 

 chain. The Whippoorwill arrives from the South from April 20th to May 

 loth and during the migration is frequently heard throughout the State 



