184 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the Arizona mountain ranges, it is oftener heard than seen. It sits 

 so closely, is so inactive during the day, and is so protectively colored 

 that it is easily overlooked. The use of a flashlight at night will often 

 enable one to locate one of these birds by the "eye-shine," even at 

 considerable distance. 



William Brewster (1881), in naming this subspecies, described it as 

 "generally similar to A. vociferus but much larger; with the rictal 

 bristles considerably longer; the gular crescent and a pretty well 

 defined superciliary stripe, ochraceous ; the lores and auriculars tawny 

 ochraceous. The white of the tail barely tipping the outer web of 

 the lateral tail feathers and on the others confined to a narrow apical 

 space; the under tail-coverts nearly without barring." 



Mr. Brewster's type came from the Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 

 where they were evidently common, for Frank Stephens, the collec- 

 tor, wrote to him: "I have heard several of these Whip-poor-wills 

 singing at one time and am told that they were heard here last year. 

 I hear A. nuttalli every evening. They keep high up the mountain 

 sides, while A. vociferus affects the lower part of the caiions." 



Harry S. Swarth (1904) says that this whippoorwill is a "fairly 

 abundant summer resident" in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., "oc- 

 curring principally between 5000 and 8000 feet; they may occa- 

 sionally occur at a little higher elevation, but I have never seen any 

 below the lowest altitude given." 



A. J. van Eossem (1936) writes: 



The vertical range of Stephens's Whip-poor-will is not limited to the higher 

 mountains. Above 6000 feet in the Santa Ritas many birds vpere heard on every 

 occasion that we stayed out after dark, but I also heard a whip-poor-will several 

 times at 5000 feet in the Atascos and Dr. Miller collected a specimen at Pefia 

 Blanca Spring, Pajarito Mountains, in June, 1931. These two localities are well 

 down in the Upper Sonora Zone. 



I took, all told, six specimens of this common, though seldom collected, whip- 

 poor-will and saw or heard several times that number. In the Santa Ritas they 

 showed a decided preference for groves of oaks and sycamores in the canon bot- 

 toms, and nearly all of those which were found at night were feeding in the 

 immediate vicinity of running water. A pair to the mile seemed to be normal 

 in most cafions which contained water and it was obvious that each pair had its 

 own territory. 



Spring. — Mr. Swarth (1904) saw the first arrival in 1903 "on April 

 28, and soon after their notes could be heard every evening, usually 

 from some thickly wooded hillside, near the bottom of the canyon." 

 But Mr. Stephens wrote to Mr. Brewster (1881) : "I heard the first 

 Whip-poor-will about the middle of May. By June 1, they were as 

 common as I ever knew them to be in the East. Sometimes I could 

 hear three or four whistling at once." 



Nesting. — ^We did not succeed in finding a nest of Stephens's whip- 

 poorwill in the Huachuca Mountains, but my companion, Frank C. 



