246 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



into line behind a female, his white throat was displayed so that, as 

 the pair flew toward me, the brownish white throat of the female 

 was scarcely noticeable, whereas that of the male was a conspicuous 

 white beard. The impression was gained that the feathers of the 

 throat of the male were lifted and that the whole throat area was 

 expanded. Usually, perhaps always, this 'flashing' of the throat 

 patch was accompanied by vocal notes." 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of the Texas nighthawk are no more 

 elaborate than are those of its relatives in the mtTior group ; the eggs 

 are laid on the bare ground, without any attempt at nest building or 

 even scooping out a hollow, in some open sandy or gravelly spot, and 

 usually with little or no cover to shade them from the full glare of 

 the sun. We were too early for eggs while I was in Arizona, but. 

 after I left, my companion, Frank Willard, found two nests in Pima 

 County on June 10, 1922; each was on the ground at the foot of a 

 greasewood bush; he says that after the female had been flushed 

 from one of the nests the male attempted to drive her back onto the 

 eggs. 



Bendire (1895) says that he has "found its eggs on the parched 

 gravelly mesas of southern Arizona, miles from the nearest water. 

 Their favorite breeding resorts here are dry, barren table-lands, the 

 sides of canyons, and the crests of rocky hills." Dr. Merrill (1878) 

 says that in Texas the eggs "are usually deposited in exposed situa- 

 tions, among sparse chaparral, on ground baked almost as hard as 

 brick by the intense heat of the sun. One set of eggs was placed 

 on a small piece of tin, within a foot or two of a frequented path. 

 The female sits close, and when flushed flies a few feet and speedily 

 returns to its eggs. They make no attempt to decoy an intruder away. 

 I have ridden up to within five feet of a female on her eggs, dis- 

 mounted, tied my horse, and put my hand on the bird before she 

 would move." 



Robert S. Woods has sent me some photographs (pis. 38, 39) of 

 a nest that he found on April 27, 1923, in the San Gabriel Wash, 

 in Los Angeles County, Calif., where he says this nighthawk is a 

 common summer resident; the eggs, he says (Woods, 1924b) — 



were deposited in a gravelly area covered with Iovf second grov^^th, mostly 

 deer-weed or vpild broom {Syrmatium glahrum). It may be observed in the 

 photograph that the gravel, which was here loose because of previous leveling 

 of the ground, had been smoothed by the removal of the larger pebbles over a 

 space such as would be covered by the body of the nighthawk. The few stones 

 scattered over it were probably rolled there by the movements of the bird in 

 rising or alighting after the eggs had been laid. * * * On one hot day the 

 eggs were moved back several inches into the partial shade of the nearest 

 shrub, being restored to the original position after the warm weather had 

 passed. The mother would remain on her eggs until approached within perhaps 



