the manner of the Night-hawk, or the Swallows, as it frequently aUghts on the ground. 

 The flight is swift and exceedingly gracefiil. "It is performed by easy flappings of the 

 wings, with occasional sailings and curving sweeps." It flies, usually not v£ry high, 

 over open fields and over small trees, ascending or descending, or sailing with graceful 

 motions, all the time in pursuit of flying insects. Often it passes and repasses over the 

 same area, occasionally alighting on the ground or on a fence rail, where it utters its 

 peculiar refrain, "and then resumes its search for insects. And thus it passes pleasant 

 summer nights." In Lee Co., Texas, I have observed the birds in spring usually about 

 April 15, and when the weather was exceptionally warm, a few days earlier. In Orange 

 Co., Fla., they make their appearance in the first week of April, and on the Chatta- 

 hoochee I have heard them utter their call-notes on April 17. As the birds are very 

 silent after the young are hatched, it is no easy matter to ascertain when they are 

 moving southward. In the latter part of September I caught one of these birds in a 

 hollow stump. It was exceedingly fat, and snapped its bill and opeiled and closed its 

 eyes constantly when I held it in my hands. 



NAMES: Chuck-will 's-widow, Southern Whippoorwill, Spanish Whippoorwill. 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Caprimulgus carolinensis Gmel. (1788). ANTSOSTOMUS CASOLINENSIS Gould 



(1838). 

 DESCRIPTION : "Bristles of the bill with lateral filaments. Wing nearly nine inches lohg. Top of the head, 



finely mottled reddish-brown, longitudinally streaked with black. The prevailing shade above and 



below, pale rufous. Terminal two-thirds of the tail-feathers (except the four central), rufous- white ; 



outer webs of all mottled, however, nearly to the tips. Female without the white patch of the tail." 

 Length, 11.50 inches; wiiig, 8.80; tail, 6.28 inches. (B. B. & R., II, p. 410.) 



The PooRWiLL, Phalaenoptilus auttalli Ridgway, inhabits the western part of the 

 country, from the Sierra Nevada eastward to eastern Nebraska and eastern Kansas, 

 north to Idaho and Montana, and south to southern Mexico. According to the late 

 Col. N. S. Goss, it is a common summer resident of Kansas, where it may be looked for 

 on the high prairies and rocky grounds along the banks of streams. The eggs, two in 

 number, are pure white, unspotted, and are found upon the bare ground. This bird is 

 also known as Nuttall's Whippoorwill. 



The Frosted Poorwill, P nuttalli nitidus Brewst., inhabits Texas west to 

 Arizona, north to western Kansas. The Dusky PoorwilL, P. nuttalli califomicus 

 RiDGW., is found along the coast of California. 



PArauque, Nyctidromus albicollis tnerrilli Sennett. This peculiar bird occurs in 

 the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas north to the Nueces River, south into 

 north-eastern Mexico. Dr. J. C. Merrill first added this species to oilr fauna in 1876. 

 In the vicinity of Fort Brown it was a regular summer resident, arriving early in 

 March and leaving by the middle of November. It frequents shady thickets and copses, 

 and, when flushed, dodges rapidly and silently among the bushes, but soon alights. The 

 notes are among the most characteristic night sounds of the lower Rio Grande, and are 

 constantly heard every evening during the summer months. They consist of a repeated 

 whistle, resembling the syllables whew, whew, whew, whew, whe-e-e-e-e-w, much stress 

 being laid upon the last, which is prolonged. The whole is soft and mellow, but can be 

 heard at a great distance. The eggs, two in number, are of a rich creamy-buff, sparingly 

 marked with a deeper shade of the same and with lilac. 



