180 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
a distance of twenty or thirty yards. It always appears with its body 
parallel to the direction of the branch or trunk on which it sits, and, I 
believe, never alights across a branch or fence rail. No sooner has the 
sun disappeared beneath the horizon, than this bird bestirs itself, and 
sets out in pursuit of insects. It passes low over the bushes, moves to 
the right or left, alights on the ground to secure its prey, passes re¬ 
peatedly in different directions over the same field, skims along the 
skirts of the woods and settles occasionally on the tops of the fence 
stakes or on the stumps of trees, from whence it sallies, like a Flycatcher, 
after insects, and on seizing them returns to the same spot. When 
thus situated, it frequently alights on the ground, to pick up a beetle; 
it also balances itself in the air, in front of the trunks of trees, or against 
the sides of banks, to discover ants and other small insects that may be 
lurking there. It is a remarkable fact that even the largest moths on 
which the Whip-poor-will feeds, are always swallowed tail foremost, and 
when swallowed, the wings and legs are found closely laid together, and 
as if partially glued by the saliva or gastric juice of the bird. The act 
of deglutition must be greatly aided by the long bristly feathers of the 
upper mandible, as these no doubt force the wings of the insects close 
together, before they enter the mouth.”— Audubon. In several of these 
birds, which I have examined, were found only insects, chiefly of a 
lepidopterous character; once I took from the stomach of a male the 
remains of two or three common potato beetles. The Whip-poor-will 
never builds a nest. In this section it deposits its eggs about the 20th 
of May, on the bare ground, or on dry leaves, and occasionally, though 
rarely, it is said on logs, in the gloomy retreats of thickets or woods. 
The eggs, never more than two in number, are white or yellowish-white, 
irregularly spotted or blotched with brown, and bluish-gray. They 
measure about 1.25 inches in length and .89 of an inch in width. This 
bird, like the Chuck-will’s-widow,* when flying about in quest of food, 
may be heard to utter a kind of low growling sound. This noise is the 
only sound I ever heard the Whip-poor-will make when on the wing. 
Genus CHORDEILES SwaInson. 
Chordeiles virginianus (Gmel.). 
Nighthawk. 
Description ( Plate 28 ). 
Male, above mottled with blackish, grayish and rufous; a white V-shape mark 
on the throat; behind this a collar of pale rufous blotches, and another on the breast 
of grayish mottling ; under parts banded transversely with dull-yellowish or red- 
*The Chuck-will’s-widow ( Antrostomus carolinensis, Gmel.) inhabits the south Atlantic and Gulf] 
states, “and lower Mississippi Valley, north to the Carolinas and southern Illinois.” Said to winter I 
chiefly south of United States, in Mexico. Central America, etc. April. 1885, I found this species breed- 5 
ing in Orange and Volusia counties. Florida, where these birds are abundant. In February and March I ^ 
neither saw or heard them, and residents of Florida assured me that the ‘ 1 Chick-will, ” as the bird is < 
there known, was found in that state only as a summer resident. 
