206 
CHUCK- WILL'S WID O W. 
Chuck-will’s Widow is certainly peculiar, being, by far, the most noticeable of all the bird 
notes heard in the South, excepting, perhaps, those of the Great Horned and Barred Owls. 
As I have said, the cadence does not especially resemble the syllables of the name and in 
order to illustrate the song, I shall once more call my friends, the Seminoles, upon the stage 
for the birds appear to them to articulate chic-co-bil-lar , and this certainly is a very good 
rendering of the notes. The cry is given with startling energy when heard quite near at 
hand; the first syllable is pronounced very distinctly, with emphasis, then follows the sec¬ 
ond somewhat prolonged and less forcibly uttered, while the remaining two are very quickly 
given with a decided accent upon the last. The whole is poured forth in the hurried man¬ 
ner so characteristic of the Whippoorwill and in about the same tone. 
When the short twilight of the South is fading into night, the Chuckwill’s Widows 
emerge from the secluded retreat, afforded by some thick hummock, in which they have 
passed the day and, alighting upon some favorite perch, will begin to sing. As before re¬ 
marked, this lay is given with an abruptness which is even startling, especially when the 
bird is but a few yards away. No preliminary sound gives notice of his presence, for he 
flits to his perch' in utter silence; then, from out of the gloom, comes the cadence, so sud¬ 
denly and so loud that, although one may have been perfectly familiar with the song for 
years, he will always, for a moment, be taken completely by surprise. ' When an ornithol¬ 
ogist hears this peculiar lay for the first time, in such close proximity, he is very apt to 
grasp his gun and start in pursuit, certain of adding a Chuckwill’s Widow to his collection. 
He approaches the spot where the bird appears to be located, carefull} r avoiding all the in¬ 
tervening obstacles which is no easy task in a Florida hummock, even in broad daylight. 
Guided by the song, he reaches a point where the increased volume of sound informs him 
that he is near enough for a shot if he could only discern the bird, when a sudden silence 
ensues—the bird has flown and the spirits of the would-be captor fall to zero; but instant¬ 
ly rise again, for the song breaks out anew a few yards away. The hunter follows only to 
be foiled again, for once more the wary bird has perceived him and has flitted onward, 
but, as before, only a short distance, so that the excited pursuer once more plunges on in¬ 
to the thickets now being rapidly enshrouded in darkness, but all in vain, for the Chuck- 
will’s Widow is a perfect will-o’-the-wisp of a bird alluring the incautious follower deeper 
and deeper into the gloomy hummock and causing him to take so many turns that unless 
he be well skilled in wood-craft, he will become utterly lost and may be forced to spend 
the night in the forest with the wild cats for company. 
My first experience with these birds was similar to that which I have described, ex¬ 
cepting that I did manage to extricate myself from the labyrinth into which they led me, 
but I afterward learned that there were two ways in which to procure these wary birds. 
The most simple is to search a hummock in which one is certain they are concealing them¬ 
selves. I have found that they rest either on the ground or near it and when aroused, will 
generally give one an opportunity to shoot, or if the branches prove too thick, one has only 
to note the direction in which they fly when, by following, they may be started again. 
The other method which I have employed was to listen carefully to the song from two or 
three points, thus getting the approximate position of the bird. Then by examining the 
