CAFRIMULGID^—CAPBIMULGIN^: TRUE GOATSUCKEBS. 458 



frosted pattern of coloration. Markings of crown transverse ; primaries barred with black aud 

 tawny. Size small. Sexes alike. Note dissyllabic. Eggs white. 



P. nut'talli. (To Thus. Nuttall.) Nittall's Poou-wili,. (J 9 , adult: Assumiug tlie 

 upper parts of a beautiful bruuzy-gray ground color, this is tdegaiitly fntsted over with soft 

 silver-gray, and watered iu wavy cross-jjatteru witli black, these black double crescents enlarg- 

 ing to herring-bone marks on the scapulars and inner ([uLUs. Four middle tail-feathers patterned 

 after the back ; others with firmer black bars on motley brown ground, aud short wliite tips. 

 Primaries and longer secondaries bright tawny, with pretty regular black bars, and marbled 

 tips (the half-opened wing viewed from below is curiously like that of the short-eared owl.) 

 A large firm silky-white throat-bar. Under parts grounded in blackish-brown, giving way 

 b((hind through ochrey with dark bars to nearly uniform ochrey. It is impossible in words tti 

 give an idea of the artistic blending of the colors in this elegant little night-jar. The sexes 



Fig. 295. —Night-hawk, or Bull-bat, I nat. size. (From Brehm. Bill too bristly.) 

 scarcely differ; specimens before me marked 9 have as purely white throat as the $, but the 

 taU-tips are shorter and tinged with ta^vny. Length 7.00-8.00 ; extent 15.00 ; wing about 5.50 : 

 taU 3.50 or less; tarsus, or middle toe without claw, 0.65. Plains to the Pacific, U. S. and 

 southward, abundant. Note of two syllable.^, the first of the " whippoorwill " omitted. Eggs 

 2, 1.05 X 0.80, elliptical, white. 



CHORDEDI'LES. (Gr. xf>P^, chorde, a stringed musical instrument; BfiXrj, evening: 

 aUuding to tlie crepuscular habits.) Night-hawks. Glabrirostral : the rictus without long stiff 

 bristles. Horny part of beak extremely small. Nostrils cylindric and rimmed about, hardly tubu- 

 lar, opening outward and upward. Tarsus feathered part way down in front. Tail lightly forked, 

 much shorter than the extremely long, pointed, stiff, and thin-bladed wing, with 1st primary 

 as long as the next. Plumage more compact and sinooth than in the night-jars; primaries 

 mostly whole-colored (in C. texensis spotted), with large white (or tawny) spaces on the outer 

 4-6; under parts barred across; a large white for tawny) V-shaped tliroat-bar. Eirirs 2, 

 heavily colored. Not strictly nocturnal. Remarkably volitorial. 



