158 LIFE HISTORIES OE NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



56. Phalaenoptilus nuttalli californicus Ridgway. 



DUSKY POOR-WILL. 



PhalmnoptUuH nuttalli californicus Ridgway, Manual of North American Birds, 1887, 588, 

 footnote. 



(B 113, part; C 266, part; R 355, part; C 398, part; U 418 6.) 



Geographical range : racillc coast regions, from California north to Washing- 

 ton ( 1 ), south to northern Lower California. 



The range of the Dusky, also known as the "California," Poor- will is confined 

 to the moist coast districts of California, and probably to similar localities in 

 Oregon and Washington. Messrs. Lyman Belding and A. W. Anthony likewise 

 report it from Tia Juana and the San Pedro Martir Mountains, in northern Lower 

 California. The most typical examples of this du.sky race come from localities west 

 of the coast range in California, while the birds of the interior and the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevadas are, more or less, intermediate between this and the 

 common Poor-will. Its breeding range is coextensive with its disti'ibution in the 

 United States. Mr. F. Stephens writes me: "Tlie Dusky Poor-will is frequently 

 heard in the spring and fall, and a few winter in sheltered valleys near the coast 

 in San Diego County, but it is apparently a rare summer resident in southern 

 California, and I have never taken its eggs." Mr. Charles A. Allen, of 

 Nicasio, California, considers it a common summer resident in Marin Countv, 

 where it arrives about the first week in March and remains during the breeding 

 season. 



Mr. R. H. Lawrence writes me from Monrovia, Los Angeles County, Cali- 

 fornia, as follows: "The California Poor-will is pretty common here. I first 

 heard its notes on May 3. According t<» my liearing, the words 'Pearl-rab-it' 

 give a feir idea of its call in letters. There is a kind of chuck or catch- 

 breath after the first two syllables which really makes the call have tliree. It 

 is clearly gi^-en, and tlie first two syllables can be heard at a considerable 

 distance; when excited more than commonly this call note is reiterated with 

 animation for a short time, but it is generally given with slight pauses after 

 each call, then a longer interval of silence follows as the bird moves to another 

 place. While flying in sight I have never heard it give any sound. On 

 August 1, Avliile walking along the road to Duarte, about 10.30 p. ni. on a 

 moonliglit night, I flushed one; it flew just ahead of me till I had pa.ssed its 

 nesting place, when it wheeled around and alighted there again, seennng to 

 nestle down to the ground, which was packed hard just there. On approaching- 

 it again, it flew off" a little farther along the road; when startled it gave quickly, 

 two or three times in succession, a low, soft note, like 'pweek, pweek, pweek,' 

 which could only be heard a few yards away. 



"On May 5, 18D3, while hurrying to catch a trahi, along a road following 

 the edge of a wash, a boy stopped me to show me a nest of the California Poor- 

 will; we flushed the bird after nearly treading on her, looking about our feet 



