170 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The average measurement of a series of sixty-three eggs in the United 

 States National Museum collection is also practically the same, heing 29.97 by 

 21.61 millimetres, or 1.18 by 0.85 inches. The largest egg of the serich meas- 

 ures 32.51 by 22.86 millimetres, or 1.28 by 0.90 inches; the smallest, 27.43 by 

 20.83 millimetres, (ir 1.08 liy 0.82 inches. 



The type specimen selected, No. 26125 (PI. 3, Fig. 4), from a set of two 

 eggs, was taken by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, United States Army, in the Animas 

 Valley, near San Luis Springs, New Mexico, on July 3, 1892, and represents 

 a very finely and profusely marked specimen, in which the ground color is not 

 very readily perceptible. 



6o. Chordeiles virginianus chapmani (Sennett). 



FLORIDA NIGHTHAWK. 



(Chordeiles popctiic) chapmani (Sennett MS.) Coues, Aiik, Y, January, 1888, 37. 

 Ch )rdciles riroinianus chapmani Soott, Auk, V, April, 1888, 180. 



(B _; C — ; R 3.576, C 401, U 420?*.) 



GEOGRAPHicAli RANGE: Florida and the Gulf coast; west to southern Texas; in 

 winter south to the Bahama Islands and through eastern Mexico to Central America. 

 Casually north to North Carolina (Macon). 



The range of the Florida Nighthawk, also commonly called "Bull-bat" or 

 simply "Bat," a somewhat smaller and darker-colored bird than the common 

 Nighthawk, is confined, as far as Icnown, to Florida and the Gulf coast west- 

 ward to southei'n Texas. I have no positive breeding records from outside of 

 Florida, but it is more tlian likely that it breeds nlong the entire Gulf coast 

 as far west at least as Ai'ansas County, Texas. Mi-. H. P. Attwater kindly sent 

 me several skins taken near Rockport, in the aljove county (fall specimens), 

 which are undoubtedly referable to this subspecies. There is also a skin in the 

 United States National Museum collection taken by Dr. Elliott Coues near Fort 

 Macon, North Carciliua, on June 10, 1869, and I have no doubt that it will yet 

 be found as a regular summer visitor along the south Atlantic coast of Georgia 

 and South Carolina. There is not sufficient material available, excepting from 

 Florida, to enable me to define its breeding range more definitely outside of this 

 State. The Florida Nighthawk is only a summer resident of the United States, 

 usually arriving from its winter haunts in the south about the middle of April 

 and returning again late in October. Mr. Attwater informs me that this Night- 

 hawk remains later in the fall in the vicinity of Rockport thnn the Western 

 Nighthawk, and that its favorite haunts there are the oak openings, while the 

 latter more often frequents the open praii'ie. 



Its general habits, call notes, food, etc., seem to be similar to the two 

 preceding species in almost every re.spect. Mr. W. E. D. Scott describes a 

 young bird, apparently five or six days old, as follows: "The down is dirty 

 Avliite beneath, and on all other parts is the same dirty white, mixed with spots 



