ORDER MACROCHIRES. 



GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, ETC. 

 Suborder CAPRI MULGI. Goatsuckers, etc. 



Family CAPRIMULGID^. Nighthawks, 

 Whip-poor-wills, etc. 



Between 85 and 90 known species belonging to this family are 

 distributed throughout the warmer parts of the globe. They are 

 nocturnal in their habits, being rarely seen in the day time except 

 when frightened from their hiding places in some wood or thicket. 



Our species are strictly insectivorous, and they capture their 

 food while on the wing. Their notes are characteristic and varied, 

 some like the Whip-poor-will being well known. On account of 

 their small and comparatively weak feet they rest lengthwise on a 

 branch and do not perch in the manner of other birds. 



Genus ANTROSTOMUS Bonap. 



198. Antrostomus carolinensis (Gmel.). 

 Chuck-will's-widow. 



Distr.: Southern United States, north to Virginia, southern Illi- 

 nois, and Kansas; south to Cuba, Central America, and Colombia in 

 winter. 



Adult male: Plumage, soft; mouth, large; bill, small; lateral 

 filaments to the bristles of the mouth; general color, pale rufous, or 

 tawny brown, mottled with black, buff and dull white; crown, 

 streaked with black feathers; throat, with a bar of buffy white; 

 breast, darker than belly, but the entire under parts variegated with 

 tawny, black and bufE white, the prevailing color being tawny; prima- 

 ries, black, heavily marked with rufous brown; tail feathers (except 

 the four middle ones) , with large spaces of plain white on upper sur- 

 faces. 



Adult female: Similar, but no white on tail, the feathers being 

 tawny rufous irregularly mottled and barred with black; breast 

 band, tawny buff instead of whitish. 



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