242 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



eyes were usually wide open; but if I slipped out at the rear and 

 looked around the corner of the tent she slowly closed her eyes until 

 only a narrow slit remained." 



Dr. Grinnell (1908) found the Pacific nighthawk "to be a com- 

 mon species of the Boreal and upper Transition zones" in the San 

 Bernardino Mountains. On June 18 he flushed a female from her 

 two eggs at an altitude of about 9,000 feet. "These were laid on the 

 bare ground in an open place among the pines. Nothing but a few 

 pine needles separated them from the granite gravel." 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Pacific nighthawk are similar to those of 

 the eastern nighthawk, but will average somewhat paler. The meas- 

 urements of 38 eggs average 30.23 by 21.6 milluneters ; the eggs show- 

 ing the four extremes measure 32.5 by 21.8, 31.5 by 23.1, and 24.6 by 

 19.0 millimeters. 



Food.—Dv. Grinnell (1908) says: "A specimen shot at dusk, July 

 4, 1906, was skinned at 11 o'clock the next day. The capacious 

 throat and gullet were found to be crammed with large winged white 

 ants. By actual count there were forty-three of these and many 

 of them were still alive, although it was at least fifteen hours since 

 they had been captured by the nighthawk."' 



Like other nighthawks this subspecies feeds mainly during the 

 dusk of early morning and evening, but all observers seem to agree 

 that it hunts largely during the day, even in bright sunlight. Its 

 food consists of a great variety of insects, such as beetles, moths, 

 ants, grasshoppers, and other flying insects. 



Voice. This nighthawk indulges in all the characteristic notes of 



the species, but Mr. DuBois mentions a note that he heard on August 

 20, which is somewhat different ; he writes : "For two weeks or more 

 some of the nighthawks flying over the hill by the ranger station 

 have been uttering a click-click-click-clich — rapidly repeated and 

 continued at considerable length. It is somewhat like a series of 

 high-pitched quacks. Other nighthawks, flying with these birds, 

 are calling the characteristic peenk at the usual intervals. I sup- 

 pose the rapidly uttered quacks to be the notes of the young." 



CHORDEILES MINOR HOWELLI Oberholser 



HOWELL'S NIGHTHAWK 



Plate 36 



HABITS 



The 1931 Check-list gives the range of this subspecies as "southern 

 Great Plains and central Kocky Mountain regions; from Wyoming 

 to middle Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, middle and western Kansas, 

 northeastern Utah, northeastern New Mexico, and southwestern 

 Nebraska, casually to North Dakota." 



