154 LIFE HISTOIUES OP NORTH AMEEIOAN BIRDS. 



patches of sage (Artemisia) and other desert plants. The climate does not seem 

 to affect it much, as it inhabits some of the hottest regions of tlie continent, like 

 Death Valley, in southeastern California, as well as the' slopes of tlu^ Kocky and 

 131ue mountains, in Oregon, where it reaches altitudes of from 6,000 to 8,000 

 feet. I have heard the Poor-Avill in Bear Valley, Oregon, in a locality wliere 

 frost could be found every month in the year. In the eastern })arts of its i-ange 

 it overlaps that of the Whij)-poor-will for some distance, and it appears to be 

 quite common in portions of eastern Kansas, notably so about Manhattan, where 

 Prof D. E. Lantz has repeatedly found it lireeding. In a letter dated October 

 4, 1892, speaking of Nuttall's as well as of the more recently described Frosted 

 Poor-will, he says: "Tlie Frosted Poor-will is not uncommon in this localit}'. I 

 have noticed more specimens at the time of their spring migration than later. 

 Indeed, at that time it seems about as common as the other form, riialcpnoptilus 

 nuttaUi. But in the breeding' season nearly all the birds seem to be of the latter 

 kind. However, my own observations lead me to regard the '■frosted'' as a mere 

 color phrase of PhaJcEiioptilus nuftalli. 1 have met with Ijoth birds together in 

 migration, and once found a pair of fledglings near where they were hatched, 

 one of the birds showing a decided hoary or frosted coloring on the wing and 

 tail feathers, the other being without these markings Only the female parent 

 Avas seen. She was a typical NuttaUi. The young birds were caught and 

 handled. The frosted one was not so well develoj)ed as the other. So far as I 

 have observed, there is no difference in the habits or in the eggs of the two birds. 



"I have found a number of sets of the older variety, some of them before 

 I knew that there was a frosted form; since then I have always been careful to 

 positively identify the parents before taking the eggs. The birds can easily be 

 secured bv the use of a butterfly net, or even by dropping a hat over them as 

 they sit in the sun; but the precaution to secure tliem is unnecessary to the 

 practical eye, for one can always have leisure to study them before they take 

 to flight. With one exception the eggs taken were laid upon bare patches of 

 gravel or on low, flat rocks, and placed usually near a bxincli of weeds or a tuft 

 of grass. The exception was a set found on the bare ground in an alley in 

 Manhattan City. This alley was in constant use and it was strange that the 

 eggs remained for so loiig a time undisturbed, for when taken incubation had 

 begun in both eggs. The Poor-wills usually keep to the vicinity of steep hills 

 and old dead grass. They seem to return to the same locality from year to 

 year to breed." 



The food of the Poor-will consists mainly of the smaller night-flying moths, 

 beetles, locusts, etc., of which a considerable portion are gathered from the 

 gi'ound. Its flight is swift, easy, and perfectly noiseless as it skims along close 

 to the ground in search of suitable morsels, and of these the more indigestible 

 })arts, such as wing- coverts of beetles, etc., are ejected in the form of pellets, in 

 the same manner as in the Kaptores and other birds. As far as I ha\e been 

 able to observe, it does not utter its well-known and mournful-sounding note of 

 "l)uih-whee-ee" while on the wing, and the last syllable is uttered so low that 



