224 GOATSUCKERS 



their whip-pur-' r'r-will. Sometimes the notes are repeated faster and 

 faster till they all run together. 



In the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, Mr. Bailey found one 

 sitting in the shade of a rock in the daytime. At his approach, 

 with a quick spring it would dart out of sight around the next rock 

 and drop into the darkest shade. Its flight was perfectly noiseless 

 and very swift. 



GENUS PHAL^ENOPTILUS. 



General Characters. Bill short with wide gape, nostrils tubular, cylin- 

 drical, opening forward and outward ; rictal bristles conspicuous ; feet 

 small, hind toe short, middle toe long, its claw pectinated, front toes 

 webbed (see Fig. 290) ; tarsus as long as middle toe without claw, naked 

 except for joint ; tail square, much shorter than wings. 



Fig. I'S'J. 

 KEY TO SPECIES. 



1. Upper parts blackish or dark brown .... californicus, p. 225. 

 1'. Upper parts light brown or grayish. 



2. Smaller and paler. Kansas to Texas and Arizona . nitidus, p. 225. 



2'. Larger and not so pale. Nebraska to Cascades . iiuttallii, p. 224. 



418. Phalsenoptilus nuttallii (Aud.}. POOR-WILL. 



Adult male. Plumage of upper parts moth-like, soft, and velvety, 

 finely mottled grayish broivn with sharply contrasting velvety black bars 

 and sagittate markings ; tail with all but middle feathers tipped with 

 white ; sides of head and chin black, white throat patch bordered by black 

 below ; rest of under parts barred except for plain buffy under tail cov- 

 erts. Adult female : similar, but with white tips to tail feathers nar- 

 rower. Young : upper parts more silvery gray mixed with rusty ; black 

 markings smaller and less distinct ; white of throat and tail restricted 

 and tinged with buffy. Wing : 5.78, tail 3.67. 



Distribution. Breeds in Upper Sonoran and Transition zone of British 

 Columbia and the western United States, from the Cascades and Sierra 

 Nevada east to central Nebraska ; winters from deserts along the southern 

 border south to Guatemala. 



Eggs. Usually laid on the bare ground ; 2, white, unspotted or lightly 

 marked. 



Food. - - Night-flying moths, beetles, locusts, and other insects. 



In southern California in the dim evening light I have often seen 

 poor-wills hunting insects along the roads and had them come close 

 to me in a ranch dooryard when they would make short sallies from 

 the ground, fluttering around with soft, noiseless flight, uttering a 

 low chuck, chncl-. In the d;iytime their eyes are of little use. A 

 pair of the birds th;it Mr. Bailey once came upon at Emigrant Gap 

 showed this sun blindness very strikingly. They had been sitting 



