399. 
400. 
401. 
402. 
454 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PICARILA — CYPSELIFORMES. 
Analysis or 
Large: wing near 8.00, Primaries dusky, with largeé’white spot on 5 of them, in both sexes, about half 
way from bend to point of the wing. . . : - + . popetue 399, 400, 401 
Small: wing about 7.00. Primaries more or jee pootted with seas with ere white (#) or tawny (?) 
spaces on 4 of them nearer point than bend of the wing. (Southwestern.) . . .. . . . .texensis 402 
C. popetue. (Vox barb., incog. Figs. 290, 295.) NiGHT-HAWK. BULL-BAT. Above, mot- 
tled with black, brown, gray and tawny, the former in excess ; below from the breast transversely 
barred with blackish and white or pale fulvous ; throat with a large white (@) or tawny (?) 
cross-bar ; tail blackish, with distant pale marbled cross-bars and a large white spot (wanting in 
the 2) on one or both webs of nearly all the feathers toward the end ; primaries dusky, unmarked 
except by one large white spot on outer five, about mnidway between their base and tip ; second- 
aries like primaries, but with whitish tips and imperfect cross-bars. Sexes nearly alike: 9 
with the white spaces on the quills, but that on the tail replaced by tawny or not evident. 
Young similar, with the wing-spots from the nest, but the markings finer and more intricately 
blended, in effect more like Antrostomus; quills edged and tipped with tawny. Length 9.00 or 
more; extent about 23.00; wing about 8.00; tail 4.50; whole foot 1.25; culimen scarcely 0.25 ; 
gape about 1.25. Temperate N. Am., chiefly Eastern, abundant; migratory ; breeds through- 
out its range; winters beyond. This species flies abroad at all times, though it is perhaps 
most active towards evening and in dull weather; and is generally seen in companies, busily 
foraging for insects with rapid, easy, and protracted flight; in the breeding season it performs 
curious evolutions, falling through the air with a loud booming sound. Eggs Q, elliptical, 1.52 
x 0.87, finely variegated with stone-gray and other neutral tints, over which is scratched and 
fretted dark olive-gray ; but the pattern and tints are very variable. The young hatch covered 
with fluffy down, whitish below, varied with blackish and brown above. It may be necessary 
in this family for the young to be covered from the first, to protect them from the cold ground. 
On being disturbed while brooding the female feigns lameness, dragging and fluttering about, 
moaning piteously, and will sometimes remove her young. 
C. p. hen’ryi. (To Dr. T. C. Henry.) Western NiguT-HAwk. The lighter-colored form 
prevailing in the dryer or unwooded portions of western United States; the gray and fulvous 
in excess of the darker hues, the white patches on the wing, tail and throat usually larger; the 
under tail-coverts more nearly uniform; but no specific character can be assigned. 
C. p. minor. (Lat. minor, smaller.) CuBAN NigHT-HAWK. A form found in the West 
Indies, similar to C. popetue in color, but rather more tawny, and decidedly smaller: wing 
7.00; tail 4.00. Florida. 
C. acutipen/nis texen’sis. (Lat. acutus, acute; penna, a pEae ss r: alluding to the sharp- 
pointed wings. Of Texas: our bird a northern race of the 8S. Am. species.) TrExas NIGHT- 
HAWK. Smaller than the foregoing, and otherwise very distinct. General tone lighter, pattern 
more blended and diffuse, more as in an 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 the scapulars and wing-coverts. 
Under parts barred, as in popetue, with blackish, tawny, and whitish, but the two former pre- 
vailing. A large white V on the throat. our outer primaries with large white spot on both 
webs, nearer tip than bend of the wing; inner primaries and all the secondaries spotted with 
tawny in broken bars. Tail blackish, with broken gray or tawny bars, and a complete sub- 
terminal cross-bar of white on all the feathers but the central pair. @ lacking this white, all 
the tail-feathers being motley-barred with gray and tawny throughout; the 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 the 
white tail- and wing-spots from the first. Length 8.00 or more; extent 20.00-22.00; wing 
about 7.00; tail 4.00. S.W. U.S., valleys of Rio Grande and Colorado, Texas to California 
