The food of these birds consists chiefly, if not altogether, of the larger
nocturnal insects, for swallowing which their mouths are admirably adapted, opening with a prodigious expansion, and assisted by numerous long bristles, which prevent the escape of an insect once within their enclosure. In a single instance the remains of a small bird are said to have been found within the stomach of one of this species.
The inner side of each middle claw of the Chuck-will’s Widow is deeply pectinated. The apparent use of this appendage, as in the other species in which it is found, appears to be as an aid in adjusting the plumage, and perhaps to assist in removing vermin.
The eggs of this bird are never more than two in number. They are oval in shape, large for the size of the bird, and alike at either end. Their ground-color is a clear crystal white. They are more or less spotted, and marked over their entire surface with blotches of varying size, of a dark purplish-brown, and cloudings of a grayish-lavender color, with smaller occasional markings of a light raw-umber brown. In shape and markings they very closely resemble those of the Whippoorwill, differing chiefly in their much larger size. They measure 1.44 inches in length by 1.06 in breadth.
Antrostomus vociferus, Bonap.
WHIPPOORWILL.
Caprimulgus vociferus, Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 71, pl. xli, f. 1, 2, 3.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 443; V, 405, pl. lxxxv.—Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 155, pl. xlii.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 98. Antrostomus vociferus, Bonap. List, 1838.—Cassin, J. A. N. Sc. II, 1852, 122.—Ib. Ill. I, 1855, 236.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 148.—Samuels, 119.—Allen, B. Fla. 300. Caprimulgus virginianus, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 55, pl. xxv. “Caprimulgus clamator, Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. X, 1817, 234” (Cassin). Caprimulgus vociferans, Warthausen, Cab. J. 1868, 369 (nesting).
Sp. Char. Bristles without lateral filaments. Wing about 6.50 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, 10.00; wing, 6.50. Female without white on the tail.
Hab. Eastern United States to the Plains; south to Guatemala (Tehuantepec, Orizaba, Guatemala). Coban (Salv. Ibis, II, 275).
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.