304 



CHUCK- WILL'S- WIDOW. 



in a state of captivity. Having no weapons of defence 

 except their wings, their chief security is in the solitude of 

 night, and in their colour and close retreats by day ; the 

 former so much resembling that of dead leaves of various 

 hues, as not to be readily distinguished from them even when 

 close at hand. 



The chuck-will's-widow lays its eggs, two in number, on 

 the ground generally, and, I believe, always in the woods ; it 

 makes no nest ; the eggs are of a dull olive colour, sprinkled 

 with darker specks ; are about as large as those of a pigeon, 

 and exactly oval. Early in September they retire from the 

 United States. 



This species is twelve inches long, and twenty-six in 

 extent ; bill, yellowish, tipt with black ; the sides of the mouth 

 are armed with numerous long bristles, strong, tapering, and 

 furnished with finer hairs branching from each ; cheeks and 

 chin, rust colour, specked with black ; over the eye extends 

 a line of small whitish spots; head and back, very deep 

 brown, powdered with cream, rust, and bright ferruginous, 

 and marked with long ragged streaks of black ; scapulars, 

 broadly spotted with deep black, bordered with cream, and 

 interspersed with whitish ; the plumage of that part of the 

 neck which falls over the back, is long, something like that 

 of a cock, and streaked with yellowish brown ; wing quills, 

 barred with black and bright rust ; tail, rounded, extending 

 about an inch beyond the tips of the wings ; it consists of ten 

 feathers, the four middle ones are powdered with various 

 tints of ferruginous, and elegantly marked with fine zigzag 

 lines, and large herring-bone figures of black ; exterior edges 

 of the three outer feathers, barred like the wings ; their 

 interior vanes, for two-thirds of their length, are pure snowy 

 white, marbled with black, and ferruginous at the base ; this 

 white spreads over the greater part of the three outer feathers 

 near their tips ; across the throat is a slight band or mark of 

 whitish ; breast, black, powdered with rust ; belly and vent, 

 lighter ; legs, feathered before nearly to the feet, which are of 



