The Chuck-will’s Widow. BIRDS. The Virginian Goatsucker. 277 
its note. This remarkable cry is said by the American 
writers to resemble the words Chuck-wilVs-widow, 
each syllable being slowly and distinctly pronounced, 
with the principal emphasis laid on the last word. It 
is so loud that in a still evening it may be heard at a 
distance of nearly a mile ; and in those districts where 
the birds are numerous, their incessant vociferation 
makes the mountains ring with echoes during the whole 
evening. In general the note is heard only in the 
morning and evening, but on moonlight nights it is 
continued throughout the whole night. 
Like the preceding species, the Chuck-will’s-widow 
is a migratory bird, arrhdng in the soutliern states of 
the American Union about the middle of March, and 
gradually extending itself towards the north. It retires 
from the United States early in September. In its 
habits it resembles the Whip-poor-will, passing the 
day in concealment in thick woods and wooded glens, 
and issuing forth at sun-down in pursuit of insects. It 
flies low, and frequently settles on old logs or on fences, 
from which it dashes off again after its prey. The 
eggs, two in number, are laid on the ground, without 
any nest, and the birds exhibit the same jealousy of 
having them touched which we have already described 
in the case of the African Collared Goatsucker, and 
which is probably common to most birds of this group. 
In illustration of this peculiarity, we may quote the 
following account given by Audubon: — “The negroes,” 
says that celebrated ornithologist, “ some of whom pay 
a good deal of attention to the habits of birds and 
(juadrupeds, 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, imagined the transportation to be performed 
under the wings of the old bird. The account of the 
negroes appearing to me more likely to be true than that 
of the farmers, I made up my mind to institute a strict 
investigation of the matter. The following is the 
result : — When the Chuck-will’s-widow, either male 
or female — ^for each sits alternately — 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 to me as I lay concealed at a distance of not 
more than eighteen or twenty yards. At this time I 
have seen the other parent reach the ^ot, 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 indicative of 
great distress, take an egg into 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.” From an observation 
of Wilson’s it would appear that the Whip-poor-will 
also removes its young from a spot where it appre- 
hends that they are in danger. 
THE SPOTTED- WINGED GOATSUCKER (AiwrostqpoffMS 
r/atfatus). — The true Goatsuckers are represented in 
Australia by two species belonging to a peculiar genus, 
to which Mr. Gould has given the name of Eurosto- 
podus^ in allusion to its stout feet. The Spotted- winged 
Goatsucker is about eleven inches long, and its plumage 
is generally of a grey colour, minutel}" freckled with 
black, and having many of the feathers edged with 
buff. The quill feathers of the wings are brownish 
black, the secondaries ivith numerous buff, and the 
first four primaries with large pure white spots, forming 
a band upon the wing. On each side of the throat 
there is a large streak of white, which also occurs in 
the other species. Little is known of the habits of 
this bird, which is distributed over all the southern 
parts offllie Australian continent. Like the preceding 
species, it breeds on the ground, and is nocturnal in its 
habits. Mr. Gould states that when flushed in the day- 
time, it mounts rapidl}' into the air, performs a few 
zigzag evolutions, and then pitches down again upon 
the earth at a distant spot. 
THE WHITE-THROATED GOATSUCKER (^Eurosto- 
podus albogularis), has only been met with in New 
South Wales, where it is not uncommon, but appears 
to be a summer bird of passage. It measures about a 
foot in length, and is of a far more dusky plumage than 
the preceding species, which it also exceeds in the 
length of the wings, the tips of the primaries reaching 
as far as the end of the tail. In accordance with this, 
Mr. Gould says that its flight is more powerful than 
that of any other goatsucker that he has seen ; it 
dashes through the air with great rapidity, and rises or 
descends almost perpendicularly whenever an insect 
comes within its reach. Its food consists principally of 
beetles and locusts, some of them so large as to render 
it surprising that they can be swallowed by the bird, 
especially as they are sometimes so little injured by the 
process, that Mr. Gould preserved them for his ento- 
mological collection. 
THE LEONA GOATSUCKER {Macrodipteryx loiigi- 
pennis) — Plate 6, fig. 18— is remarkable for having an 
exceedingly long feather, measuring sometimes twice the 
length of the body, springing from each wing, but fur- 
nished with barbs only at the extremity, the remainder 
of the feather constituting a bare shaft. This curious 
appendage, which is peculiar to the male, is not, 
according to Mr. Swainson, one of the ordinary quill 
feathers of the wing, of which the same number exists 
in both sexes, but a supplementary feather, arising 
from the bend of the wing, between the primaries and 
secondaries. Its object — if, indeed, it serves any 
special purpose — is quite unknown, and it seems pro- 
bable that, like so many other extraordinary develop- 
ments in animals, they are to be regarded solely as 
ornaments ; but, in the absence of information upon the 
habits of the bird, the question cannot be decided. 
The Leona Goatsucker usually measures about eight 
inches in length, and in its general appearance resembles 
our European species. 
THE VIRGINIAN GOATSUCKER {Chordeiles virgini- 
anus), called the Night Hawk by many American 
writers, is a well-known migratory bird in the United 
States, where it arrives in the month of April, returning 
again towards the south about the middle of August. 
It measures rather more than nine inches in length, 
and is of a general blackish-brown colour, thickly 
sprinkled above with minute spots and streaks of cream 
colour and pale red. The tail is forked, and all the 
feathers composing it, with the exception of the two 
middle ones, are barred with white nearly to the tij), 
