262 ANTROSTOMUS NUTTALLI, NUTTALL's WHIPPOORWILL. 



of danger before morning, is a strange state of mind — like a gun at full 

 cock, perfectly quiescent, yet on the very edge of action. A shot, even 

 a sliout, at sucb a time, would bring a whole camp to its feet in a second 

 of time. So the hours wear on, till darkness and tension of mind relax 

 together, and imagination is dissipated in the very homely, prosy fact 

 of breakfast. 



Like others of its family, Nuttall's Whippoorwill is oftener heard than 

 seen. When flushed from its retreat in the day time, among the shrub- 

 bery or tall weeds, it rises hurriedly with wayward flight, dashes a few 

 yards, and realights. There is something about it at such times that 

 strongly recalls the Woodcock, and the bird is quite as difticult to shoot 

 on the Wing. 1 saw it under such circumstances in Kansas, near Fort 

 Eiley, one of its easternmost recorded localities. It was not, apparently, 

 very common in that region, but great numbers are found in the warmer 

 parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Their breeding range appears to be 

 coextensive with their United States distribution. I have observed one 

 Mexican quotation ; the species appears to winter on or near our south- 

 ern border, as the eastern Whippoorwill does in corresponding localities. 



An interesting and important item in the history of this species has 

 only recently come to light. Unlike most species of its genus — of its 

 subfamily, in fact — of which the eggs are known, it lays colorless instead 

 of variegated eggs. Of this fact I was first informed by my Arizona 

 correspondent, Lieutenant C. Bendire, United States Army. He gave 

 me a minute account of the nesting, which is terrestrial, and essentially 

 similar to that of other species of the group. Lieutenant Bendire found 

 the eggs near Tuscon, in Arizona ; there were two, laid on the ground, 

 in a depression, at the foot of a bush, among dense vegetation. Eggs 

 were also taken by Mr. Eidgway in Nevada, and by Mr. Merriam in 

 Utah. They are white, unmarked, about an inch, or rather over, in 

 length, by four-fifths broad. Both sexes incubate. 



The following interesting passage occurs in the Allen Mss., before 

 unpublished : 



" Nuttall's Whippoorwill was first met with on my western expedition 

 at Topeka, Kansas, where it was by no means infrequent. We often 

 heard it at night near the outskirts of the city, and repeatedly met with 

 it in the day time in the darker and denser portions of the woodlands 

 bordering on the Kaw River, reposing on the ground, like the common 

 Whippoorwill of the Eastern States. When flushed it passed rapidly, 

 with a noiseless, skimming flight, through the more open parts of the 

 undergrowth, soon realighting again on the ground. In the mountains 

 of Colorado we again met with it at a few points in great numbers, as 

 high even as 8,000 feet above the sea. At our camp of July 12, on Tur- 

 key Creek, just above the caQon, scores were heard singing on the neigh- 

 boring slopes throughout the beautiful moon -lit night, but our pursuit 

 of them was fruitless, as they could be seen only as they flitted from 

 pcint to point when disturbed. We afterward heard them in consider- 

 able numbers at the Garden of the Gods, near Colorado City, and found 

 them very numerous in September at the mouth of Ogden Canon, near 

 Ogden city, in Utah. Here, as soon as the dusk of the evening ren- 

 dered it difficult to distinguish sucb small objects with distinctness, the 

 whole hill sides seemed to be alive with the tantalizing abundance of 

 these birds. Like the common Whippoorwill of the East, they seem to 

 sing at intervals throughout the season, and at this date (September) 

 appeared fully as musical as during the breeding season. It lingers at 

 its summer home till the autumn is far advanced, as we found it at 

 Ogden as late as October G, quite far up the slope of the mountains, in 



