Frosted Poor-will 245 



dusk or sometimes before dawn, and it is more often 

 recognized by its voice than by its appearance. It often 

 alights on the bare ground, and when it does so it is most 

 difficult to detect it. 



The eggs, two in number, are laid on the bare ground, 

 sometimes in the open, sometimes sheltered by a tuft 

 of grass or a bush. They are oval or blunt oval, creamy - 

 white, with a faint pink suffusion which does not disappear. 

 They measure '99 x "75. 



Frosted Poor-will. Phalcenoptilus nuttalli nitidus. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 418a — Colorado Records — Bendire 92, p. 157 ; 

 Cooke 97, pp. 85, 162, 22-i, 



Description.— Very similar to P. nuttalli, but paler and more silvery, 

 and the dark marks of the crown and back fewer and more sharply 

 defined ; below the transverse bars of the abdomer finer, paler and less 

 conspicuous. Dimensions abovit the same, perhaps averaging a littlo 

 smaller. 



Distribution. — From Texas to Arizona, north to southern Colorado 

 and south-west Kansas, sovith to northern Mexico. 



Of three Poor-wills taken by Captam Thome at Fort Lyon, Mr. 

 Brewster considered that one should be referred to this subspecies. 



Bendire and Goss believe that this subspecies is only a coloiu* -phase 

 of the typical Poor-will, as the ranges of the two are practically identical 

 and they do not differ appreciably in habits, action or size. 



Genus CHORDEILES. 



Horny part of the bill extremely small ; nostril cylindrical and 

 rinuned but not tubular ; gape with very short rictal bristles ; wing 

 long and pointed, the outer (10th) primary almost equal to the ninth ; 

 tail slightly forked, very short, about haK the length of the wing ; 

 tarsus about as long as the middle too without claw, feathered about 

 half way down. 



Two distinct species and several subspecific races of Night-Hawks 

 are found in the United States. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Larger ; wing 7 to 8 ; white patches on the five outer primaries, 



nearer the base than tip. C. v. henryi, p. 246. 



B. Smaller ; wing 6 to 7 ; white patches on four outer primaries 



only, nearer the tip than the base, C. a. texensis, p. 247- 



