CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW. 97 



ever superstitious notions they may entertain of the one are pro- 

 bably applied to both. 



This singular genus of birds, formed to subsist on the super- 

 abundance of nocturnal insects, are exactly and surprisingly fitted 

 for their peculiar mode of life. Their flight is low, to accommo- 

 date itself to their prey; silent, that they may be the better con- 

 cealed, 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 expansion, to seize with more certainty, and furnished 

 with long branching hairs, or bristles, serving as palisadoes to se- 

 cure what comes between them. Reposing so much during the 

 heats of day they are much infested with vermin, particularly 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 them- 

 selves of these pests, at least when 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 color 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- wilFs-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 color, 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 color, speck- 

 ed 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; 



VOL. VI. B b 



