302 CHUCK-WILE S-WIDOW. 



State of Tennesee, in the interior ; and no instance has come 

 to my knowledge of its having been seen either in New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, or Maryland. On my journey south, I first 

 met with it between Eichmond and Petersburg, in Virginia, 

 and also on the banks of the Cumberland in Tennesee. 



Mr Pennant has described this bird under the appellation of 

 the " short- winged goatsucker " (Arct. Zool., No. 336), from a 

 specimen which he received from Dr Garden of Charleston, 

 South Carolina ; but in speaking of its manners, he confounds 

 it with the whip-poor-will, though the latter is little more 

 than half the cubic bulk of the former, and its notes altogether 

 different. " In South Carolina," says this writer, speaking of 

 the present species, " it is called, from one of its notes, chuck, 

 Chuck-will s-widoio, and, in the northern provinces, whip- 

 poor-will, from the resemblance which another of its notes 

 bears to those words " (Arct. Zool., p. 434). He then proceeds 

 to detail the manners of the common whip-poor-will, by ex- 

 tracts from Dr Garden and Mr Kalm, which clearly prove that 

 all of them were personally unacquainted with that bird, and 

 had never seen or examined any other than two of our species, 

 the short-winged or chuck-will' s-widow, and the long-winged 

 or night hawk, to both of which they indiscriminately attribute 

 the notes and habits of the whip-poor-will. 



The chuck-will's-widow, so called from its notes, which 

 seem exactly to articulate those words, arrives on the sea- 

 coast of Georgia about the middle of March, and in Virginia 

 early in April. It commences its singular call generally in 

 the evening, soon after sunset, and continues it, with short 

 occasional interruptions, for several hours. Towards morning 

 these repetitions are renewed, and continue until dawn has 

 fairly appeared. During the day it is altogether silent. This 

 note or call instantly attracts the attention of a stranger, and 

 is strikingly different from that of the whip-poor-will. In 

 sound and articulation it seems plainly to express the words 

 which have been applied to it (chuck-ivilVs-ividoiv), pronounc- 

 ing each syllable leisurely and distinctly, putting the principal 



