144 LIFE HISTOEIBS OP NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



their eggs or young are disturbed they are carried off in the capacious mouths 

 of the birds to some distant part of the forest, in the same manner that a cat 

 transports her kittens.' I must say that I do not believe this assertion. I 

 purposely flushed the parent off the eggs which I sent you three times on 

 May 3, 1890, when I first found the nest, and once on the 4th, altogether four 

 times, before I took the set, and yet the old bird returned each time and con- 

 tinued to sit in the same place as long as her eggs remained there. When I 

 flushed the parent from her nest on the 3d of May she had only one egg, 

 though she was setting; on the 4th she still had but one, and it was only on the 

 5th, the third day after I found the nest, that she laid the last egg." 



It is possible that this species removes its eggs to a different locality occa- 

 sionally when disturbed, but this habit does not, by any means, appear to be 

 universal; the young, however, are more frequently hidden in some other place 

 by the parents under similar circumstances. 



The food of Chuck-will's-widow consists mainly of beetles, winged ants, 

 and other insects, especially the night-flying Lepidoptera — such as the Spingidm 

 (Hawk moths), Saturnoidce (silk moths), and Noctuidce (Owl moths) — and the 

 enormous width of its short bill enables it to swallow the largest of these very 

 readily. It does occasionally aspire to larger game, and it seems to be a well- 

 established fact that small birds form a portion of its regular bill of fare. 



A well-authenticated instance of its cannibalistic tendencies is published by 

 Dr. F. W. Langdon among his field notes on Louisiana birds, in the "Journal 

 of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History" (Vol. IV, 1881, p. 151), in which 

 he makes the following statement: "The stomach of a female shot on April 14 

 contained the partially digested body, entire, of a Swamp Sparrow, intermingled 

 with the feathers of which were numerous remains of insects, chiefly small 

 beetles." 



More recent observations, made by Mr. John I. Northrop on Andi'os Island, 

 one of the Bahamas, between March 14 and July 3, 1890, fully confirms this. 

 He published the following regarding this species: "Three specimens were 

 taken, two of which were disturbed in the woods during the daytime and the 

 other shot at dusk. Upon examining the stomach of the first one shot, I found, 

 among an indistinguishable mass of brownish matter, a small bone, about half 

 an inch long, that looked like the leg of a small bird. The next one examined 

 contained in its stomach the partially digested remains of an entire Humming- 

 bird, enough of which was preserved to identify it beyond a doubt as Sporadinus 

 rkordir ^ 



Audubon, as well as Dr. John Grundlach, also mentions having found the 

 remains of birds in the stomachs of this species, and it would appear that such 

 a diet formed a not unusual joart of its regular fare. 



In the southern part of their range nidification begins sometimes by April 

 10, more often in the latter part of this month and during May, and occasionally 

 eggs are found as late as June 30. I believe, as a rule, only one brood is raised 



' The Auk, Vol. VIII, 1891, p. 73. 



