CHUCK- WILL'S- WIDO W. 303 



emphasis on the last word. In a still evening it may be heard 

 at the distance of nearly a mile, the tones of its voice being 

 stronger and more full than those of the whip-poor-will, who 

 utters his with much greater rapidity. In the Chickasaw 

 country, and throughout the whole Mississippi territory, I 

 found the present species very numerous in the months of 

 April and May, keeping up a continual noise during the 

 whole evening, and, in moonlight, throughout the whole of 

 the night. 



The flight of this bird is low, skimming about at a few feet 

 above the surface of the ground, frequently settling on old 

 logs, or on the fences, and from thence sweeping around in 

 pursuit of various winged insects that fly in the night. Like 

 the whip-poor-will, it prefers the declivities of glens and other 

 deeply shaded places, making the surrounding mountains 

 ring with echoes the whole evening. I several times called 

 the attention of the Chickasaws to the notes of this bird, on 

 which occasions they always assumed a grave and thoughtful 

 aspect ; but it appeared to me that they made no distinction 

 between the two species; so that whatever superstitious notions 

 they may entertain of the one, are probably applied to the other. 



This singular genus of birds, formed to subsist on the 

 superabundance of nocturnal insects, are exactly and sur- 

 prisingly fitted for their peculiar mode of life. Their flight 

 is low, to accommodate itself to their 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 ex- 

 pansion, to seize with more certainty, and furnished with 

 long branching hairs or bristles, serving as palisadoes to 

 secure what comes between them. Keposing so much during 

 the heats of day, they are much invested with vermin, par- 

 ticularly about the head, and are provided with a comb on 

 the inner edge of the middle claw, with which they are often 

 employed in ridding themselves of these pests, at least when 



