216 Birds of Colorado 



Western Night- Hawk. Chordeiles virginianus henry i. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 420a— Colorado Records — Baird 54, p. 13 ; Allen 

 72, pp. 151, 158, 179 ; Aiken 72, p. 206 ; Henshaw 75, p. 367 ; Scott 

 79, p, 95 ; Tresz 81, p. 184 ; Drew 81, p. 140 ; 85, p. 17 ; Allen 

 & Brewster 83, p. 196 ; Beckham 85, p. 143 ; Morrison 88, p. 107 ; 

 89, p. 145 ; Kellogg 90, p. 88 ; Bendire 92, p. 167 ; Lowe 94, p. 268 ; 

 McGregor 97, p. 38 ; Cooke 97, pp. 85, 208 ; Keyser 02, p. 262 ; Dille 

 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 09, p. 232 ; Warren 06, p. 21 ; 08, 

 p. 21 ; 09, p. 15 ; Gilman 07, p. 154 ; Markman 07, p. 156 ; Rockwell 

 08, p. 165. 



Description. — Male — Above mottled with black and tawny and a little 

 white, the last chiefly on the wing-coverts ; jarimaries, greater-coverts 

 and secondaries dusky black ; the five outer primaries with a con- 

 spicuous white spot about the middle of their length ; tail with black 

 bars and a white subterminal band on all except the central pair of 

 feathers ; below, a white triangular throat-patch ; breast and sides 

 of the throat and face mottled dusky and tawny ; posteriorly barred 

 with dusky and ta%vny-white ; bands fading away on the under tail- 

 coverts ; iris and bill blackish, legs dusky grey. Length 9-0 ; wing 7'5 ; 

 tail 3-75 ; culmen '3 ; tarsus .5. 



A female is similar, but the throat-patch is tawny and white taU-tips 

 are absent. A young female is paler and more silvery above, has the 

 primaries edged with white at the tips, but the white patches much 

 smaller below ; the throat patch is hardly defined, and there is no trace 

 of the white on the tail. 



Distribution. — Western North America from central British Columbia 

 and Manitoba south to central Mexico, east to Illinois and Kansas, 

 west to California ; south in winter to northern South America, perhaps 

 to Patagonia. 



The Western Night-Hawk was taken as long ago at 1853 by Captain 

 Gunnison in the Rio Grande Valley, and it is an abundant summer 

 bird aU over Colorado, breeding from the plains to about 10,000 feet, 

 perhaps even higher. It was noticed by Keyser flying about on the 

 top of the poak " TiUie Ann " in the Ten -mile range near Breckenridge, 

 above timber hne at about 13,000 feet. 



It arrives from the south towards the end of May ; it was seen by 

 Wtirren at Gaume's Ranche in Baca co., on the 21st, in El Paso co. on 

 the 23rd, and near Grand Junction by Sullivan as early as the 8th. It 

 leaves again in September, though seen as lato as October 18th at 

 Grand Junction by Sullivan (Rockwell). Breeding records are Boulder 

 CO., up to 9,500 feet (Gale), Breckenridge (Carter), Fairplay (Tresz), 

 Twin Lakes (Scott) and Crested Butte (Warren). 



Habits. — ^The Night-Hawk is hardly well named, as 

 it is often to be seen about in the day-time, even on 



