548 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



PHAL^NOPTILUS NUTTALLn NUTTALLII (Audubon). 



POORWILL. 



Adult male. — General color of upper parts pale brownish, gray or 

 grayish brown, palest on sides of pileum, scapular region, and upper 

 tail-coverts, the lighter areas in fresh or unworn plumage sometimes 

 pale silvery gray, with a soft downy or velvety surface, most of the 

 feathers minutely stippled with darker; pileum (which is usually 

 more brownish, sometimes quite dusky, centrally) with very narrow 

 bars (usually more or less brace shaped) of black, these sometimes 

 widening into spots on center of crown; back and rump also usually 

 with more or less distinct narrow (usually brace shaped) bars of 

 black or dusky; scapulars with a single narrow, sharply defined 

 black bar enlarged in middle into a usually more or less cuneate, 

 hastate, or diamond-shaped spot; wing-coverts and inner secondaries 

 also each with one or more narrow bars and a more or less distinct 

 shaft streak of black; other secondaries irregularly banded with 

 light ochraceous-buff and marbled pale buffy gray and blackish, the 

 bands becoming less distinct (more confused) on distal portion; pri- 

 mary coverts ochraceous-buff crossed by three bands of black, these 

 connected along inside of shaft; primaries ochraceous-buff banded 

 with black, their terminal portion finely marbled or vermiculated gray- 

 ish, usually -with irregular bars of blackish ; upper tail-coverts some- 

 times nearly immaculate, but usually with a few more or less distinct 

 narrow bars of black, sometimes more or less distinctly banded with 

 darker and lighter shades of grayish; middle pair of rectrices pale 

 silvery gray to buflfy gray or pale grayish brown, minutely stippled 

 with darker and with a greater or less number of more or less distinct 

 narrow zigzag transverse lines of blackish; second pair banded with 

 duU black and a mixture of pale brownish gray and ochraceous-buff, 

 the bands sometimes distinct and fairly regular, oftener indistinct, 

 irregular, or broken, sometimes replaced by a confused combination 

 of mottlings, marblings, and zigzag markings, the grayish areas always 

 broken by blackish or dusky marblings ; third pair similar but rather 

 darker (sometimes uniform brownish black subterminally) and 

 broadly tipped (for about 8-11 mm.) with white; fourth and fifth 

 pairs similar but with, the uniform blackish subterminal area or 

 subterminal band, as well as the white tip broader (the latter about 

 13-20 mm.); loral, orbital, and auricular regions nearly uniform 

 sooty or sepia brown; malar region and chin lighter sepia or grayish 

 brown, minutely freckled with darker, the former usually intermixed 

 with white on anterior portion, this sometimes forming a distinct 

 rictal spot or streak; throat immaculate silky wliite, this extending 

 farther backward laterally than on middle portion; extreme lower 

 throat and upper chest mostly uniform very dark sooty brown or 



