Obs. This species is of common occurrence in the States on the Atlantic, and is universally known from its loud and often-repeated notes in the season of pairing and incubation. It is not recorded by our late naturalists and travellers to have been observed in the western regions of this continent, but the specimens described by Wagler as above were from Mexico, and were either this species, or a near relative. To Caprimulgus macromystax we shall more particularly allude under the head of obscure species of this family.
3. Antrostomus Nuttallii. (Aud.) Nuttall’s Whip-poor-will. Caprimulgus Nuttallii. Aud., Orn. Biog., V. p. 335. (1839.)
Aud., B. of Am., Oct. ed., VII. pl. 495.
Small, aberrant; wing long; third quill longest; legs rather long; tail moderate; upper-parts brownish-black, mottled and spotted with ashy white and reddish fulvous; wing-coverts tipped with pearly ashy white; under-parts with transverse stripes of brownish-black and yellowish-white; under tail-coverts pale reddish fulvous; quills with alternate transverse bars of brownish-black and handsome reddish fulvous; middle feathers of the tail same colors as other upper parts; other tail feathers brownish-black, with irregular bars and lines of dark cinereous, and widely tipped with silky white; collar on the neck before silky white. Female similar, but with the colors paler, and the white of the throat and tail tinged with pale fulvous.
Dimensions. Total length, about 7 inches; wing, 5¾; tail, 3¼ inches.
Hab. Western North America, Rocky Mountains (Audubon); Oregon (U. S. Ex. Exp. Vincennes); Washington Territory (Dr. Cooper); Texas (Mr. J. H. Clark). Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington.
Obs. This handsome species, which is the smallest of the birds of this family yet discovered in North America, appears to be a rather common bird in the countries above mentioned. It varies in some degree from the characters of the typical species, and with a small South American bird (A. ocellatus), may form a distinct group. Nothing is recorded of its habits.
II. GENUS CHORDEILES. Swainson, Fauna Boreali Americana, Birds, p. 496. (1831.)
Bill small and weak; gape very wide, without bristles; wing long, pointed, with the first and second quills longest; tail moderate or rather long, usually emarginate; legs short, weak; tarsus usually partly covered with short feathers; toes rather long, slender; claw of the middle toe pectinated. General form stout and heavy, broad. A genus containing about six species, inhabiting North and South America, the North American species of which are less nocturnal in their habits than those of the preceding genus.
1. Chordeiles virginianus. (Brisson.) The Night Hawk. Caprimulgus virginianus. Briss., Orn., II. p. 477. (1760.) Caprimulgus popetue. Vieill., Ois. d’Am., Sept. 1, p. 56. (1807.) Caprimulgus americanus. Wilson, Am. Orn., V. p. 65. (1812.)
Edwards, Birds, II. pl. 63.; Catesby, Carolina, II. Appendix, pl. 16; Vieill., Ois. d’Am., Sept. 1, pl. 24; Wilson, Am. Orn., V. pl. 40; Aud., B. of Am., pl. 147; Oct. ed., I. pl. 43; Nat. Hist. N. Y. Birds, pl. 27, fig. 60.
Bill short, weak; gape very wide; wing long, pointed; first and second quills longest, and nearly equal; tail emarginate; legs short; tarsus feathered below the joint, with the tibia; bare part covered with scales; middle toe long, partially united to the outer toe by a web, and with its claw distinctly pectinated. Male.—Throat white; entire upper parts brownish black, every feather more or less mottled and spotted with ashy white and reddish fulvous, the former most conspicuous on the secondaries and wing-coverts, and the latter on the back; neck behind with an irregular collar of reddish; quills brownish-black, with a wide bar of white about their middle, forming a conspicuous transverse bar on the wing; tail feathers brownish-black, all, excepting the two central, with a wide subterminal transverse band of white, and with other irregular transverse narrow bands of ashy white; breast brownish-black, with rounded and irregular spots of ashy white and reddish fulvous; abdomen with transverse bars of ashy white and dark brown; under tail-coverts white. Female with the white stripe on the wing much narrower, and in some specimens confined to the inner-webs; white of the throat less pure, and tinged with reddish-yellow; general plumage paler, and more tinged with ashy and reddish fulvous.
Dimensions. Total length, 9 to 9½ inches; wing, 7½; tail, 4½ inches.
Hab. All of temperate North America, New Mexico (McCall); Oregon (Townsend); California (Heermann); Canada (Hall); Mexico (Rivoli collection); Nicaragua (Barruel); Cuba (Lembeye); Jamaica (Gosse). Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada.
Obs. An abundant species everywhere in the United States.
2. Chordeiles sapiti. Bonaparte, Cons. Av., p. 63. (1849.)