CAPRIMULGID.E — THE GOATSUCKERS. 419 



single specimen, shot near the town ol' San Antonio, where it was of un- 

 connnon occurrence. He received also another specimen from Fort Stock- 

 ton. During his stay at Matamoras he did not notice this bird, but was 

 informed tliat a kind resembling this species was very common at a raneho 

 about twenty-five miles distant, on the Monterey road. Ur. Coues found 

 this species particularly abundant tln-oughout Arizona. At Fort Wliijiple it 

 was a summer resident, arriving there late in April and remaining until 

 October. So numerous was it in some localities, that around tlie camp- 

 fires of the tra\-eller a perfect chorus of their plaintive two-syllaljled notes 

 was continued incessantly through the night, some of the performers being 

 so near that the sliarp click of their mandibles was distinctly audible. 



]\Ir. J. A. Allen found this species abundant on the lower parts of the 

 mountains in Colorado, and heard the notes of scores of them near the 

 mouth of Ogden Canon on several occasions after niglitfaU. Though so 

 numerous, all efforts to procure specimens were futile, as it did not usu- 

 ally manifest its presence till after it became too dark for it to be clearly dis- 

 tinguished. He saw it last, October 7, during a severe snow-storm on the 

 mountains north of Ogden. It had been quite common during the greater 

 part of September. He also met with this bird at an elevation of 7,000 

 feet. He had pre\iously ascertained its presence throughout Kansas from 

 Leavenworth to Fort Hays. 



From these varied observations the range of this species may be given as 

 from the valley of the Eio Grande and the more northern States of Mexico, 

 throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and the Great Plains nearly to the Pacific, 

 in California, Oregon, and Washington Territory. 



The egg of this species (13,587) was obtained among the East Humboldt 

 Mountains, by Mr. Robert Ridgway, July 20, 1868. Its measurement is 

 LOG inches in length by .81 of an inch in breadth. It is of a regularly 

 elliptical form, being equally rounded at either end. Its color is a clear 

 dead-white, entirely unspotted. The egg was found deposited on the bare 

 ground beneath a sage-busli, on a foot-slope of the mountains. The nest 

 was nothing more than a bare spot, apparently worn by the body of the bird. 

 Wlien found, the male bird was sitting on the egg, and was shot as it flew 

 from the spot. 



Mr. Salvin (Ibis, III. p. 64) mentions taking, April 20, 1860, on the moun- 

 tains of Santa Barbara, Central America, a species of AatrostomKs, a female, 

 with two eggs. This is spoken of as nearly allied to, perhaps identical with, 

 A. vociferus. Its eggs are, however, spoken of as white, measuring 1.05 

 inches by .80 of an inch, almost exactly the size of the eggs of tliis species. 

 Mr. Salvin adds : " I do not quite understand these eggs being white, except 

 by supposing them to be accidentally so. In other respects, i. e. in form 

 and texture, they agree with the eggs of otlier sj:)ecies of CiiprimuhjUlcc. 

 These eggs, two in number, were on the ground at the foot of a large pine- 

 tree. There was no nest." 



