THE POOK-WILL. 155 



unless one is close to the bin! it can not be readily detected. I have heard the 

 unmistakable song of this species in many places in the West, bnt althou<4li 

 fairly common over a great extent of conntry, it is nincli more frequently 

 heard than seen. I have also spent considerable time iu \aiiily looking for the 

 eggs of this species, and only succeeded in ()l)taining a singh^ set. Its lugu- 

 brious calls are most often heard shortly after dusk, along tlie sides of rocky 

 canyons in the foothills, and less often on the level phiins and the mountain 

 summits; its call note is also occasionally uttered in the daytime, but not often. 



Mr. Fred. W. Koch writes me on this subject as follows: "(Jn the morning 

 of May 5, 1891, in the vicinity of Matarango Spring, in the Goso Valley, 

 California, while walking along a sheep trail on the hillside above the spring, I 

 was surprised to hear a Poor-will call from the opposite hill several yards away. 

 Thinking it singular for this bird to utter its note in the daytime, I stopped to 

 hear it repeated and to make sure of its identity. Just then its mate flew up aliout 

 10 feet away, and on examination I found a single fresh egg laid on the ground 

 in a little bare spot a few feet in diameter; next day there were two eggs, which 

 were taken. The bird probably uttered the call to warn its mate." This set is 

 now in the United States National Museum collection. 



This species was fairly common near Camp Harney, Oregon, along the 

 slopes of Rattlesnake Canyon, in which the Post was built. It usualh^ arrived 

 hereabout April 15, and any fine evening after sundown several of these birds 

 would "tune up "and conmience calling from difierent directions along the sides 

 of the canyon, and keep up their concert for an hour or more. On the evening 

 of May 20, 1S77, while returning to my quarters, I noticed a pair of these liirds 

 hopping along the main road directly in front of the officers' ([uarters, evidently 

 feeding, and subsequently I saw sometimes half a dozen, within a distance of 

 300 yards, similarly engaged. They were quite tame, and would scarcely move 

 out of my way. I more than once approached ^vithiu two feet of one l)efore it 

 took flight, and then it flew only a few feet before settling down again. A very 

 low, grunting sound, like "pweek pweek," and another caused by the snapping 

 together of the mandibles, were the only noises made while so engaged; they 

 never uttered their ordinary call on this road. (_)n June 4, 1S77, a short distance 

 above the Post, I flushed one of these birds on a sninll plnteau, over which 

 numerous bowlders were scattered; the scant patches of soil l)eing covered 

 with sag-e and other bushes. This bird fluttered and tumbled around me in 

 a circle, which made me suspect that its nest w^s close by; but the most careful 

 search failed to reveal it. I am positive a pair nested there, as I could hear their 

 calls in about the same place every night. The Poor- will sits so close and its 

 plumage harmonizes so pei'fectlv with the ordinary surroundings that its eggs or 

 young are only discovered by accident. The only set of eggs obtained by me 

 was found on the dry, barren plains south of my camp on llillito Creek, near 

 Tucson, Arizona, on August 2, 1872; they were fresh and laid on the luu-e ground 

 under a small grease-wood bush (Ohione) and were fully ex[)osed to tlu^ sun. The 

 male was shot. From tlu' late date on which these eggs were found I believe 



