438 
CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW. 
SO that whatever superstitious notions they may entertain of the 
one are probably applied to both. 
This singular genus of birds, formed to subsist on the supera- 
bundance of nocturnal insects, are exactly and surprisingly fitted 
for their peculiar mode of life. Their flight is low, to accomo- 
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 some- 
thing like those of the bat, quick and sudden; their mouths ca- 
pable of prodigious expansion, to seize with more certainty, 
and furnished with long branching hairs, or bristles, serving as 
palisadoes to secure what comes between them. Reposing so 
much during the heats of day they are much infested with ver- 
min, 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 themselves 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 colour and close retreats by day; the former so much re- 
sembling that of dead leaves of various hues as not to be readily 
distinguished from them even when close at hand. 
The Chuck-wilPs-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 dark- 
er 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 co- 
lour, 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 rag- 
ged streaks of black; scapulars broadly spotted with deep black, 
bordered with cream, and interspersed with whitish; the plu- 
mage of that part of the neck which falls over the back is long, 
