464 CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW. 
prey; silent, that they may be the better concealed, and sweep upon it 
unawares ; their sight, most acute in the dusk, when such insects are 
abroad ; their evolutions, something like those of the Bat, quick and 
sudden; their mouths, capable of prodigious expansion, to seize with 
more certainty, and furnished with long, branching hairs, or bristles, 
serving as palisadoes to secure what comes between them. Reposing 
so much during the heats of day, they are much infested with vermin, 
particularly about the head, and are provided with a comb on the inner 
edge of the middle claw, with which they are often employed in rid- 
ding themselves of these pests, at least when in a state of captivity. 
Having no weapons of defence, except their wings, their chief security 
is in the solitude of night, and in their color and close retreats by day ; 
the former so much resembling that of dead leaves of various hues, as 
not to be readily distinguished from them even when close at hand. _ 
The Chuck-will’s-widow lays its eggs, two in number, on the ground 
generally, and, I believe, always in the woods; it makes no nest; the 
eggs are of a dull olive color, sprinkled with darker specks, are about 
as large as those of a Pigeon, and exactly oval. Early in September 
they retire from the United States. 
This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-six in extent; bill, 
yellowish, tipped with black; the sides of the mouth are armed 
with numerous long bristles, strong, tapering, and furnished with finer 
nairs branching from each; cheeks and chin, rust color, specked with 
black; over the eye extends a line of small whitish spots; head and 
back, very deep brown, powdered with cream, rust, and bright ferru- 
ginous, and marked with long, ragged streaks of black; scapulars, 
broadly spotted with deep black, bordered with cream, and interspersed 
with whitish; the plumage of that part of the neck which falls ofer 
the back, is long, something like that of a cock, and streaked with 
yellowish brown; wing quills, barred with black and bright rust; tail, 
rounded, extending about an inch beyond the tips of the wings; it 
‘consists of ten feathers; the four middle ones are powdered with 
various tints of ferruginous, and elegantly marked with fine zigzag 
lines, and large herring-bone figures of black; exterior edges of the 
three outer feathers, barred like the wings; their interior vanes, for 
two thirds of their length, are pure snowy white, marbled with black, 
and ferruginous at the base; this white spreads over the greater part 
of the three outer feathers near their tips; across the throat is a slight 
band or mark of whitish; breast, black, powdered with rust; belly and 
vent, lighter; legs, feathered before nearly to the feet, which are 
of a dirty purplish flesh color; inner side of the middle claw, deeply 
pectinated. 
The female differs chiefly in wanting the pure white on the three 
exterior tail-feathers, these being more of a brownish cast. 
