CHERRIE'S NIGHTHAWK 243 



In naming this bird in honor of his friend Arthur H. Howell, Dr. 

 Harry C. Oberholser (1914) characterized it as "somewhat like 

 ChordeUes virginianus sennetti, but male with upper parts more 

 rufescent and somewhat paler, the dark brown color more rufescent, 

 less grayish, and the light markings much more buffy or ochraceous ; 

 posterior lower parts more buffy, and the anterior dark brown areas 

 more rufescent." 



Robert B. Rockwell writes to me that this nighthawk is common 

 in the region about Colorado Springs and that he has seen it im 

 various other parts of Colorado, on the plains, in the valleys, and 

 in the mountains up to 10,000 feet altitude. 



George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that it reaches about its 

 southern limit in the vicinity of Austin, Tex., and that its habitat 

 includes "the plains; barren fields; cowtrails in pastures; roadsides 

 and along railroad tracks; barren gravelly ridges, and gravelly sur- 

 faces in the open, barren hills; backland plowed fields; rocky hill- 

 sides; edges of woodlands; flat, gravelly roofs of office buildings in 

 town." 



I cannot find anything to indicate that the habits of Howell's 

 nighthawk differ essentially from those of the other neighboring 

 subspecies. Mr. Simmons (1925) says of the fall migration in Texas: 

 "Gathers in flocks in late summer, mid- July to third week in August; 

 migration begins early in August, and by the end of that month the 

 local breeding birds have departed; hundreds pass through, August 

 10 to August 30, but the last have not gone until late in October. 

 During one fall migration flocks containing as many as 200 to 300 

 birds were observed on the open prairies northeast of Austin. Dur- 

 ing both migration seasons the various subspecies of nighthawks 

 mix up on their way to and from South America, so that identifica- 

 tion of migrants is hopeless without a specimen in hand." 



The eggs are similar to those of other nighthawks. The measure- 

 ments of 26 eggs average 30.2 by 21.7 millimeters ; the eggs showing 

 the four extremes measure 33.0 by 21.9, 31.7 by 23.4, and 26.3 by 20.2 

 millimeters. 



CHORDEILES MINOR ASERRIENSIS Cherrie 



CHERRIE'S NIGHTHAWK 



HABITS 



George K. Cherrie (1896) described this race from a bird collected 

 on November 2, 1893, in the valley of the River Aserri, Costa Rica. 

 It is a small, pale race, about the size of chapmani. Nothing was 

 known about its distribution at that time, but it has since been found 

 to be the breeding form of southern Texas, from San Antonio south- 

 ward and into Tamaulipas. 



