170 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



laid upon the back of poor Will one thousand 

 and eighty-eight blows, with only a barely per- 

 ceptible pause here and there, as if to catch 

 its breath. Then it stopped about half a minute 

 and began again, uttering this time three hundred 

 and ninety calls, when it paused, flew a little 

 further away, took up the tale once more and 

 continued till I fell asleep." 



Photo by H. K. J.il. 



'jLiling Tub. Co. 



WHIP-POOR-WILL ON NEST 



It is interesting to note in connection with 

 Mr. Burroughs's observation, the translation of 

 the scientific name of the Whip-poor-will : the 

 first word, antrostomus, means "cave-mouth" 

 and the second, voci ferns. " strong voice." 



I.ike the other members of its family, the 

 \\'hip-poor-will when on the ground, where it 



is apt to be in daytime, is practically invisible, 

 so perfectly does its plumage blend with the 

 fallen leaves and twigs among which it crouches. 

 In fact even when the bird is no more than ten 

 or twelve feet away, and its whereabouts is 

 known positively to within a few feet, a keen 

 and trained eye will sometimes search for fully 

 half an hour before discovering the bird's out- 

 line, and meanwhile it will sit perfectly still as 

 if it understood the difficulty under which the 

 observer is laboring. Once flushed, it flies rapidly 

 and absolutely noiselessly for a short distance, 

 only to plunge to the ground and again vanish 

 as if the earth had swallowed it completely. 

 When driven from its eggs the bird flutters 

 along the ground quite rapidly for a few yards, 

 and then begins a series of struggles, accom- 

 panied by much flapping of wings and gasping, 

 as if it were hopelessly crippled, all of which 

 performances seem deliberately intended to lure 

 the intruder away from the precious eggs. If 

 followed for a few yards the bird suddenly 

 recovers completely, and vanishes like a ghost. 



Stephens's Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vo- 

 ciferus macromystax) does not differ in colora- 

 tion from the common Whip-poor-will but it 

 averages decidedly larger — about eleven inches 

 in length — and its rictal bristles are much 

 longer and stouter. It is found in southern 

 Arizona, New Mexico, and southwesten Texas, 

 south through the mountains of northern Mexico, 

 wintering south to Guatemala. 



POOR 



Phalaenoptilus nuttall 



A. O. U. N 



General Description. — Length, y^ inches. Plum- 

 age, a variegation of gray, brown, buff and bhick. 

 Tail, square. 



Color. — General color of upper parts, pale brozvnisli- 

 gray, palest on sides of crown, shoulders, and upper 

 tail-coverts, the lighter areas in fresh or unworn 

 plumage sometimes pale slivery-gray with a soft downy 

 surface, most of the feathers minutely stippled with 

 darker; crown (which is usually more brownish, some- 

 times 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 narrow (usually brace- 

 shaped) bars of black or dusky; shoulders with a single 

 narrow, sharply defined black bar enlarged in middle 

 into a usually wedge- or diamond-shaped spot ; wing- 

 coverts and inner secondaries, each with one or more 

 narrow bars and a shaft streak of black; other second- 

 aries, irregularly banded with light buff and marbled 

 with pale buffy-gray and blackish, the bands becoming 



WILL 



i nuttalli (Audubon) 



umber 418 



less distinct (more confused) on ends; primary coverts,, 

 buff crossed by three bands of black, these connected 

 along inside of shaft ; primaries, buff banded with black, 

 their terminal portion finely marbled or streaked with 

 grayish, usually with irregular bars of blackish; upper 

 tail-coverts, sometimes nearly immaculate, but usually 

 with a few narrow bars of black, sometimes banded 

 with darker and lighter shades of grayish; middle 

 pair of tail-feathers, pale silvery-gray to buffy-gray, 

 minutely stippled with darker and with narrow zigzag 

 transverse lines of blackish; second pair, banded with 

 dull black and a mi.xture of pale brownish-gray and 

 buff, the bands sometimes distinct and fairly regular, 

 oftener indistinct, irregular, or broken, sometimes 

 replaced by a confused combination of mottlings, mar- 

 blings, and zigzag markings, the grayish areas always 

 broken by blackish or dusky marblings ; third pair 

 similar but rather darker (sometimes uniform brown- 

 ish-black near the tip) and broadly tipped with white; 

 fourth and fifth pairs, similar but with both the uniform. 



