THE FliOSTED TUOUWILL. 157 



55. Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nitidus ISkewster. 



FROSTED POOR-WILL. 



rii((l(vitopfilu.s HuttaUi )iiti<l>ts Brewster, Auk, IV, April, 1887, 147. 



(B llo, piut; C 2U(J, part; K 355, part; O 398, part; U 418rt.) 



Geogbapiiical range: Apparently similar to that of the Poor- will. 



The Frosted Pdor-will, a lig-litev-colored and grayer hird than Nuttall's Poor- 

 will is likely to pnive only a color phase of the latter, e.speoially as the known 

 rani;e of the two appears to be practically identical, was first described by Mr. 

 William Brewster in "The Auk" (Vol. IV, 1887, p. 147), from specimens taken 

 on the Nueces River, Texas, February 27, 1886. It has since then been met 

 with in southeast'ern California, Arizona, southern New Mexico, folorndo, and 

 Kansas. Its general habits appear to be entirely similar to those of the preced- 

 ing species, but there is as yet not sufficient material availal)le to enalile one to 

 come to any ])ositive conclusions about the proper status of this pale form. 

 The late Col. N. »S. Goss, in his work on the "Birds of Kansas, 1891" (p. 34(;), 

 makes the following ]H'rtinent remarks on this subspecies: "This bird does not 

 ajipear to differ in hal)its, actions, or size from /'. iniffdIU, and I am impresseil 

 with the thought that it may possibly prove to be a, dichromatic phase, like that 

 of the Screech Owl {Mcfiascops asio), rather than a subspecies, as now entered." 



The very fact that it can not be considered as having a range of its own 

 where the typical Poor-will is not also found seems to confirm this view. One 

 of the lightest-colored specimens of this pale form which I have seen (an adult 

 female) was secured in Death \^alley, California, on January 28, 1891, and is now 

 in the ornithological collection of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 in this city. Other specimens from the same region are tvpical Phahenoptilus 

 UHftaJli, and both phases winter to some extent in these desert regions. A set of 

 eggs of this race, taken with the i)arent, in Riley County, Kansas, on June 26, 

 1889, by Mr. Eben M. Blachly, are now in the Goss collection in the Public 

 Museum at ]\Iilwaukee, Wisconsin. They were laid upon the ])are ground, 

 under a bunch of grass upon the j)rairie, near the edge of a cornfield; they 

 measure 1.0.") by 0.79 and 1.03 by 0.78 inches; or 26.67 by 20.07 and 26.16, 

 by 19.81 milliuKitres. There are no absolutely identified eggs of this sub- 

 species in the United States National Museum collection, and they are 

 indistinguishable from those of the Poor- will. 



