TEXAS NIGHTHAWK 249 



The Juvenal female differs from the adult female much as above detailed 

 for the male, but somewhat less so. She is similar to the juvenal male, but 

 has the light spot on the primaries smaller and more deeply buff or ochraceous 

 buff, instead of vphite or slightly bufEy ; the light throat-patch more deeply 

 buff, never whitish ; and she lacks the subterminal white bar on the tail. 



What he calls a first autumn plumage, which is also the plumage 

 of the first winter, "is practically the same in both male and female 

 as that of the adults so far as the contour feathers are concerned, and 

 otherwise differs only in having whitish or buffy tips on the pri- 

 maries, secondaries, and rectrices. These light tips mostly wear off 

 before the next molt, but usually persist sufficiently, at least on the 

 shortest secondaries, to serve for the discrimination of year-old 

 birds." He says of the molts : 



From the fugitive natal plumage the young bird molts directly into the 

 juvenal plumage, growing the while, so that at least by the time, often before, 

 it has attained full size of body and wings, the juvenal pliynage is complete. 

 Then by a practically continuous molt, usually in September, it again changes 

 its contour feathers, but retains the remiges and rectrices. The combination 

 plumage of the first autumn is worn apparently until the following summer, 

 when the regular sequence of adult molt is begun. The adult of this species 

 molts but once a year, usually between the last of July and the middle of 

 September, most individuals chiefly in August, during which period all of the 

 feathers, including remiges and rectrices, undergo a renewal. 



Food. — The food of the Texas nighthawk consists of a variety of 

 flying insects, which it scoops up in its capacious mouth while on the 

 wing; almost anything in this line seems to be acceptable. Mrs. 

 Bailey (1928) writes: "Their food consists of almost any insects that 

 may be out when they are. The stomach of one had a mass of mosqui- 

 toes and a small bug. Another contained one or more ground beetles, 

 injurious click beetles, large leaf chafers, leaf hoppers, and green 

 plant bugs, together with 150 winged ants (Merrill MS)." Dr. 

 Grinnell (1908) says that one collected in the San Bernardino 

 Mountains "contained in its stomach four of the immense seven- 

 lined June beetles." A. J. van Kossem (1927) made the following 

 observations on the feeding habits of this species in Salvador : 



The Texas Nighthawks were more varied in feeding habits than any of the 

 others. During the winter they were very common in favorable lowland locali- 

 ties, and shortly after sundown would appear in hundreds, flying high and 

 toward the sunset. A little later in the short interval of dusk, they flew much 

 lower and the general direction was opposite to that taken at first. We sup- 

 posed them to be working back to the localities from which they first started, 

 feeding as they went. It was some time before we found out anything of 

 their nocturnal activities, for their eyes gave only a pale green reflection, which 

 was easily overlooked and not visible beyond a few feet. Many spiders gave 

 a much brighter glow than these nighthawks, and only by careful search in 

 suitable places, could we find them. All the individuals which we found after 

 dark were on the ground in the open. Chordeiles acutipcnnis therefore hunts 



