BIRDS OF KANSAS. 347 



Screecli Owl [Megascops asio), rather than a sub-species as now 

 entered. 



Eggs two, pure white; inform, oval to rounded elliptical. A 

 set of eggs collected in Riley county, Kansas, June 26th, 1889, 

 by Mr. Eben M. Blachly, and kindly loaned me, with the skin 

 of one of the parent birds, for identification, are, in dimensions: 

 l.Oox. 79, 1.03x.78. They were laid upon the bare ground, 

 under a bunch of grass upon the prairie, and near the edge of a 

 corn field. 



Genus CHORDEILES Swainsoit. 



"Bill small, the nostrils depressed; the gape with feeble, inconspicuous 

 bristles. Wings long, narrow, and pointed; the first quill nearly or quite equal 

 to the second. Tail rather narrow, slightly forked; plumage quite compact. 

 Habits diurnal or crepuscular." 



Chordeiles virginianus (Gmel.). 



NIGHT-HAWK. 

 PLATE XXIII. 



Summer resident; common in the eastern to the. middle por- 

 tion of the State; rare in the western. Arrive the first of May; 

 begin laying the last of May; return in September; a few occa- 

 sionally remain into October. 



B. 114. K. 357. C. 399. G. 165, 164. U. 420. 



Habitat. Eastern North America; north to Hudson's Bay; 

 west to edge of Great Plains; (to Pacific Coast along the north- 

 ern border of the United States; ) south in winter to Bahamas, 

 Cuba, Jamaica, (breeds?) middle America, and portions of east- 

 ern South America. {Ridgioay.) 



Sp. Char. '■'■Male: Above greenish black, but with little mottling on the 

 head and back; wing coverts varied with grayish; scapulars with yellowish 

 rufous; a nuchal baud of fine gray mottling, behind which is another coarser one 

 of rufous spots. A white V-shaped mark on the throat; behind this a collar of 

 pale rufous blotches, and another on the breast of grayish mottling. Under 

 parts banded transversely with dull yellowish or reddish white and brown; wiug 

 quills quite uniformly brown; the five outer primaries with a white blotch (about 

 half an inch long) midway between the tip and carpal joint, not extending on 

 the outer web of the outer quills. Tail with a terminal white patch, which does 

 not reach the outer edge of the feathers. Female: Without the caudal white 

 patch, the white tail bands more mottled, the white of the throat mixed with 

 reddish." 



