chuck-will’s-wido w . 
5 
attention of the Chickasaws to the notes of this bird, 
on which occasions they always assumed a grave and 
thoughtful aspect; but it appeared to me that they 
made no distinction between the two species ; 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 
superabundance of nocturnal insects, are exactly and 
surprisingly fitted for their peculiar mode of life. 
Their flight is low, to accommodate itself to their prey ; 
silent, that they may be the better concealed, 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, capable of prodigious expansion, so 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 vermin, parti- 
cularly 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 resembling that of 
dead leaves, of various hues, as not to be readily distin- 
guished from them even when close at hand. 
The chuck-will’s- 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 darker specks, are about as large 
as those of a pigeon, and exactly oval. Early in Sep- 
tember 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 colour, specked with black ; 
over the eye extends a line of small whitish spots ; head 
