298 
CHUCK- WILL’S- WIDOW. 
state of Tennesee, in the interior ; and no instance has come 
to my knowledge of its having been seen either in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Maryland. On my journey south, 
I first met with it between Richmond and Petersburg, in 
Virginia, and also on the banks of the Cumberland in Ten- 
nessee. 
Mr Pennant has described this bird under the appellation of 
the “ Short-winged Goatsucker,” ( Arct . Zool. No. 336,) from 
a specimen which he received from Dr Garden, of Charleston, 
South Carolina ; but, in speaking of its manners, he confounds 
it with the Whip-poor-will, though the latter is little more 
than half the cubic bulk of the former, and its notes altogether 
different. tc In South Carolina,” says this writer, speaking of 
the present species, “ it is called, from one of its notes, chuck , 
Chuck-will’ s-widow ; and, in the northern provinces, Whip-poor - 
will, from the resemblance which another of its notes bears to 
those words.” ( Arct . Zool. p. 434.) He then proceeds to 
detail the manners of the common Whip-poor-will, by extracts 
from Dr Garden and Mr Kalm, which clearly prove that all 
of them were personally unacquainted with that bird ; and 
had never seen or examined any other than two of our species, 
the Short-winged or Chuck-wilPs-widow, and the Long- 
winged, or Night Hawk, to both of which they indiscriminately 
attribute the notes and habits of the Whip-poor-will. 
The Chuck-wilPs-widow, so called from its notes, which 
seem exactly to articulate those words, arrives on the sea 
coast of Georgia about the middle of March, and in Virginia 
early in April. It commences its singular call generally in 
the evening, soon after sunset, and continues it, with short 
low murmuring cry, scarcely audible to me, as I lay concealed at a distance 
not more than eighteen or twenty yards. At this time, I have seen the other 
parent reach the spot, 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 in 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.” — Ed. 
