CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW. 153 



female, perched lengthwise on a branch, appears coy and silent, whilst the 

 male flies around her, alights in front of her, and with drooping wings and 

 expanded tail advances quickly, singing with great impetuosity. They are 

 soon seen to leave the branch together and gambol through the air. A few 

 days after this, the female, having made choice of a place in one of the most 

 retired parts of some thicket, deposits two eggs, which I think, although I 

 cannot be certain, are all that she lays for the season. This bird forms no 

 nest. A little space is carelessly scratched amongst the dead leaves, and in 

 it the eggs, which are elliptical, dull olive, and speckled with brown, are 

 dropped. These are not found without great difficulty, unless when by 

 accident a person passes within a few feet of the bird whilst sitting, and it 

 chances to fly off. Should you touch or handle these dear fruits of happy 

 love, and, returning to the place, search for them again, you would search in 

 vain; for the bird perceives at once that they have been meddled with, and 

 both parents remove them to some other part of the woods, where chance 

 only could enable you to find them again. In the same manner, they also 

 remove the young when very small. 



This singular occurrence has as much occupied my thoughts as the equally 

 singular manner in which the Cow Bunting deposits her eggs, which she 

 does, like the Common Cuckoo of Europe, one by one, in the nests of other 

 birds, of different species from her own. I have spent much time in trying 

 to ascertain in what manner the Chuck-will's-widow removes her eggs or 

 young, particularly as I found, by the assistance of an excellent dog, that 

 neither the eggs nor the young were to be met with within at least a hundred 

 yards from the spot where they at first lay. The Negroes, some of whom 

 pay a good deal of attention to the habits of birds and quadrupeds, assured 

 me that these birds push the eggs or young with their bill along the ground. 

 Some farmers, without troubling themselves much about the matter, imagine 

 the transportation to be performed under the wings of the old bird. The 

 removal is, however, performed thus: 



When the Chuck-will's-widow, either male or female, (for each sits alter- 

 nately,) has discovered that the eggs have been touched, it ruffles its feathers 

 and appears extremely dejected for a minute or two, after which it emits a 

 low murmuring cry, scarcely audible at a distance of more than eighteen or 

 twenty yards. At this time the other parent reaches the spot, flying so low 

 over the ground that I thought its little feet must have touched it, as it 

 skimmed along, and after a few low notes and some gesticulations, all indica- 

 tive of great distress, takes an egg in its large mouth, the other bird doing 

 the same, when they would fly off together, skimming closely over the 

 ground, until they disappeared among the branches and trees. But to what 

 distance they remove their eggs, I have never been able to ascertain; nor 

 Vol. I. 24 



