148 
U. S. P. R R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS. 
■*> 
Whippoorwill. 
Caprimulgus vociferus, Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 71 ; pi. xli, f. 1, 2, 3. —Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 443 : V, 
405 ; pi. 85. — Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 155 ; pi. 42. 
Jlntrostomus vociferus, Bonap. List, 1838.— Cassin, J. A. N. Sc. II, 1852, 122.—Ib, Ill. I, 1855, 236. 
Caprimulgus virginianus, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 55 ; pi. xxv. 
“ Caprimulgus clamator, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. X, 1817, 234,” (Cassin.) 
Sp. Ch —Bristles without lateral filaments. Wing about 6g inches long. Top of the head ashy brown, longitudinally 
streaked with black. Terminal half of the tail feathers (except the four central) dirty white on both outer and inner webs. 
Length, 10 inches ; wing, 6.50. 
Female without white on the tail. 
Hab. —Eastern United States to the plains. 
In this species the bristles at the base of the bill, though stiff and long, are without the 
lateral filaments of the chuck-will’s widow. The wings are rather short; the second quill 
longest; the first intermediate between the third and fourth. The tail is rounded; the outer 
feathers about half an inch shorter than the middle ones. 
The colors of this species are very difficult to describe, although there is quite a similarity to 
those of A. carolinensis, from which its greatly inferior size will at once distinguish it. The 
top of the head is an ashy gray, finely mottled, with a broad median stripe of black ; all the 
feathers with a narrow stripe of the same along their centres. The hack and rump are some¬ 
what similar, though of a different shade. There is a collar of white on the under side of the 
neck, posterior to which the upper part of the breast is finely mottled, somewhat as on the top 
of the head. The belly is dirty white, with indistinct transverse bands and mottlings of brown. 
The wings are brown ; each quill with a series of round rufous spots on both webs, quite con¬ 
spicuous on the outer side of the primaries when the wings are folded. The terminal half of 
the outer three tail feathers is of a dirty white. 
The female is smaller ; the collar on the throat is tinged with fulvous. The conspicuous 
white patch of the tail is wanting, the tips only of the outer three feathers being of a pale 
brownish fulvous. 
There is a prevalent impression among the unlearned in many parts of the country that the 
whippoorwill and the night hawk are identical. They are, however, widely different, both 
generically and specifically, as will he evident to any one on a comparison of specimens. Thus 
in the whippoorwill the mouth is margined by enormous stiff bristles more than an inch long; 
the wings are short, not reaching the end of the tail, which is very broad and rounded. There 
are bars of rufous spots on the wing quills, but no white whatever. The tail is white beneath 
for its terminal half. In the night hawk ( CJiordeiles popetue ) the bristles of the bill are 
scarcely appreciable ; the wings are sharp pointed, longer than the tail, uniformly brown, with 
a broad spot of white across the middle of the long quills, and without any rufous spots. The 
tail is rather narrow, forked, or emarginate, and with only a small square blotch of white near 
the end. The most striking feature next to the difference of the bristles of the bill is, perhaps, 
the absence of the white wing spot of the one and its presence in the other—characters found in 
both sexes. 
The precise range of this species to the westward is not ascertained. On the upper Missouri 
and westward it is replaced by the.4 . nuttalli. 
The first name of Vieillot for this species, although actually prior to that of Wilson, cannot be 
made use of, as it heads a description and figure relating to both Antrostomus and Chordeiles. 
