158 OKNTTH< 
The Chuck-wills Widow at Raleigh, 
N. C. 
The Chuck-wills Widow ( Antrostomus carolin- 
ensis) is tolerably common here, but is very 
seldom seen — far less often than its smaller 
cousin, the Whip-poor-will, which to judge 
by the numbers of each bird which can be 
heard calling on any still night in the coun- 
try at the right time of year, ought to come 
to hand much less often than it does if it 
were as hard to flush as the big Widow. 
The birds start singing about the last week 
in April, and this seems to be the right time 
to find them, if indeed one is lucky enough 
to find them. 
My experience is as follows: I flushed one 
on April 21, 1885, but could not get a shot; on 
April 30, I flushed two along a fence, and after 
a while killed one sitting on a bush. From 
this time on to 1888 I never saw one at all, al- 
though I heard them whenever I happened to 
be in the country at night. 
On April 27, 1888, I flushed one from under 
a bush, whereupon he settled in a tree twenty- 
five feet from the ground, and was promptly 
collected ; while in his death throes he disgorged 
the entire body, feathers and all of a Carolina 
Wren, which I suppose he had been intending 
to digest. The same day I flushed another, 
and had an easy shot but missed him clean. 
The few I have flushed always settled in 
trees, except in the last case, when the bird lit 
on the ground and was refluslied, and then 
settled in a tree and was missed. On the 
other hand Whip-poor-wills almost invariably 
light on the ground, and seldom in a bush. 
If the Widow roosts in trees this would ac- 
count for the great difficulty of finding one. 
Audubon says it roosts in hollow trees which 
would also increase its chances of eluding ob- 
servation. 1 have no doubt the bird nests in 
this section as it is a regular summer visitor 
about half as common as the Whip-poor-will, 
but I have never found the eggs. 
C. S. Brimley. 
Raleigli, N. C. 
o.&o. x rv< oat . 1889 p.issr 
Sunny So.Oologist.1489. Chuck-will' s-widow. By F. D. Foxhall. Ibid., p. 3 Auk,VlI. Jan ‘'890 
/ . 808. Chuck-will's Widow. By Arthur T. Wayne, Ibid., pp. 82, 83. -P-W 
• ■' Account of its habits as observed at Charleston, S. C. ©0i@QOeB©O0rd« II 
ft 
/m u. ,c «> 
An Antrostomus carolinensis Linn., 9 ■ had the stomach 
filled with feathers and little pieces of bones (probably of a War- 
bler) , and one of the tail-feathers was colored like those of the 
male (the inner web white above). 
