188 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of the Rocky and Blue mountains, in Oregon, where it reaches altitudes of from 

 6,000 to 8,000 feet. I have heard the Poor-will in Bear Valley, Oregon, in a 

 locality where frost could be found every month in the year. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1932) writes: "At times poorwills are 

 found in growths of low forests, but they are more often encountered 

 in regions where dense clumps of brush are scattered over otherwise 

 open ground, as is common in desert and semiarid localities, or in 

 brush-grown, rocky canyons, where the ground is rough and strewn 

 with bowlders." 



Keferring to the Huachuca Mountains, in Arizona, Harry S. 

 Swarth (1904) says: "I found the Poor- will quite abundant during 

 the summer months in the foothill region and in the lower parts of 

 the canyons ; but though most numerous below 5000 feet they were 

 by no means restricted to these parts, for I saw or heard some in all 

 parts of the mountains occasionally up to an altitude of nearly 

 10,000 feet." 



George F. Simmons (1925) designates its haunts in Texas as "high, 

 gravelly flats or bits of plateau grown with post oak timber and with 

 occasional moist spots; gravel patches dotted with catsclaw bushes, 

 located in post oak growth on slopes and flat tops of hills; high 

 prairies on rough ground along the terraces of valleys ; bare ground 

 on rocky hillsides; among shrubbery or on semi-arid flats." 



Nesting. — The nesting of the poorwill is a very simple affair. The 

 two eggs are laid on the bare ground, without any semblance of nest 

 building; a slight hollow may be scraped in the bare earth, or the 

 eggs may be laid on hard gravelly ground, or even on a flat rock. The 

 exact spot chosen for a nest site may be in full sunlight, but of tener it 

 is at least partially shaded by some bush, often a greasewood bush or 

 a bunch of sagebrush, or some other bunch of vegetation. The only 

 eggs taken by Major Bendire (1895) were "laid on the bare gTound 

 under a small grease-wood bush (OMone) and were fully exposed 

 to the sun," near Tucson, Ariz. Prof. D. E. Lantz wrote to him 

 from Kansas, regarding the nesting habits of the poorwill in that 

 region, that "with one exception the eggs taken were laid upon 

 bare patches of gravel or on low, flat rocks, and placed usually near 

 a bunch of weeds or a tuft of grass. The exception was a set found 

 on the bare ground in an alley in Manhattan City. This alley was in 

 constant use and it was strange that the eggs remained for so long 

 a time undisturbed, for when taken incubation had begun in both 

 eggs. The Poor- wills usually keep to the vicinity of steep hills and 

 old dead grass. They seem to return to the same locality from year 

 to year to breed." 



E. S. Cameron (1907), reporting from Montana, says: "On June 

 26, 1907, Mr. M. M. Archdale flushed a Poor-will from her two white 



