670 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PICARIJE — HALCYONES. 



wooded country from Texas to Dakota : silvery grayish -white predominating above, the white 

 below greatly in excess of the narrow, irregular or broken, dark bars, and little or no rufous 

 anywhere — in the latter respect especially differing from C v. henryi. Chordiles popetiie 

 sennetti CouES, Auk, Jan. 1888, p. 37 ; Chordeiles virginianus sennetti Chamb. Syst. Tabl. 

 Canad. Birds, 1888, App. A, p. 14; Chordediles popetiie sennetti Coues, Key, 4th ed. 1890, 

 p. 902; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, hypothetical No. 16. 1, p. 330, admitted to the regular 

 list at the Cambridge meeting of the Committee, Nov. 15, 1896: A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, 

 Jan. 1897, p. 121, No. 420 c. 



C. V. hen'ryi. (To Dr. T. C. Henry.) Western Night-hawk. The lighter-colored form 

 prevailing in the dryer or unwooded portions of western United States ; gray and fulvous in ex- 

 cess of darker hues; white patches on wing, tail, and throat usually larger; under tail-coverts 

 more nearly uniform ; but no specific character can be assigned. 



C. V. chap'mani. (To Frank M. Chapman, the distinguished ornithologist.) Chapman's 

 Night-hawk. Florida Night-hawk. Similar to C virginianus in color, but rather more 

 tawny, and decidedly smaller; wing 7.00; tail 4.00. Florida to Texas, and southward. 

 C. popetue minor Coues, 2d and 3d eds. of the Key, p. 454, in which this form was referred 

 to the Cuban; C. virginianus minor Coues, Birds N. W. 1874, p. 264; Kidgw. Man. 1887, 

 p. 301 ; A. 0. U. List, 1st ed. 1886, No. [420 ?>.J ; Chordiles popetue chapmani Cove^, ixoxn 

 Sennett's MS. Auk, Jan. 1888, p. 37 ; Chordeiles virginianus chapmani Scott, Auk, Apr. 

 1888, p. 186; Coues, Key, 4th ed. 1890, p. 903; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 420 6. 

 C. acutipen'nis texen'sis. (Lat. aeutus, acute ; penna, a feather : alluding to the sharp- 

 pointed wings. Of Texas: our bird a northern race of the S. Am. species.) Texas Night- 

 hawk. Smaller than the common Night-hawk, and otherwise very distinct. General tone 

 lighter, pattern more blended and diffuse, more as in Antrostomus. Adult ^: Assuming 

 upper parts gray, this color intimately punctate with lighter and darker shades, more boldly 

 marked with blackish, chiefly in streaks, and with tawny and white, largest on scapulars and 

 wing-coverts. Under parts barred, as in virginianus, with blackish, tawp.y, and whitisli, but 

 the two former prevailing. A large white V on throat. Four outer primaries with large white 

 spot on both webs, nearer tip than bend of wing ; inner primaries and all secondaries spotted 

 with tawny in broken bars. Tail blackish, with broken gray or tawny bars, and a complete 

 subterminal cross-bar of white on all the feathers but the central pair. 9 lacking this white, 

 all the tail-feathers being motley-barred with gray and tawny throughout ; primaries all 

 spotted with tawny, larger spots of this color replacing the white of the ^; throat- V tawny. 

 Young more suffused with tawny on a pearly-gray, black-speckled ground ; but young ^ with 

 wliite tail- and wing-spots from the first. Length 8.00-9.00; extent 20.00-22.00 ; wing about 

 7.00 ; tail 4.00 or more. Southwestern U. S., valleys of the Rio Grande and Colorado, Texas to 

 California, and southward in winter to Central America ; N. in summer over the borders of 

 Utah and Nevada, and in California to lat. 38° ; E. occasionally to the Mississippi valley in 

 Louisiana; common, in some places as abundant as C. virginianus, whose general habits and 

 traits it shares, though the diflFerence in appearance between the two is obvious when they are 

 flying. This species comes over our borders in April, breeds May, June, and July, and leaves 

 in October. Eggs 2, laid on the ground, subelliptical, averaging 1.05 X 0.75, but varying 

 over 0.20 in length, profusely and minutely marbled and veined with various dark tints, but 

 the general effect decidedly lighter in tone than that of the eggs of C. virginianus. 



Suborder HALCYONES: Halcyoniform Birds. 



See p. 540 for analytical characters of this suborder, as framed to include the five families 

 BucerotidcB, Alcedinidte, Momotida, Todidce, and MeropidcB. The first and last of these are 

 exclusively Old World ; the second is chiefly Old World, with one American genus ; the third 



