S4 BULLETIN 86, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The two elliptical eggs are white, buff or gray, much marked through- 

 out with blackish, drab, gray, olive, and plumbeous. 



History. — This species was first brought to scientific notice in 

 174-3, by Mark Catesby, in the supplement to his " Natural History 

 of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands." He, however, con- 

 fused the nighthawk {Chordeiles virginianus) and the whip-poor- 

 will {Setochalcis vocifera), in which mistake subsequent authors 

 for more than 50 years followed him. Alexander Wilson, in his 

 "American Ornithology,"^ was the first to discriminate the two 

 species satisfactoril}^, and to point out in detail the real differences 

 between them. 



The first technical description, however, applicable to any form of 

 the species appeared in 1789, when Gmelin called the northeastern 

 bird Caprimulgus virginianus.^ No subdivision took place until 

 1855, when Cassin separated the lighter western birds as Chordeiles 

 henryi.^ In the following year the Cuban bird was described un- 

 der two names, of which Doctor Cabanis' Chordediles minor ^ has 

 priority. Not until 1888 were any further races added, in which 

 year Chordeiles virginianus sennetti was discovered and published,^ 

 and the Florida bird separated as Chordeiles po'petue \_^ virginianus'] 

 chapmani, both by Doctor Elliott Coues.^ Eight years later Mr. George 

 K. Cherrie named a migrant bird from Costa Eica as Chordeiles vir- 

 ginianus aserriensis^^ which now proves to be the same as a hitherto 

 unrecognized race from southern Texas. In 1903, Mr. J. H. Eiley set 

 apart a Bahama race as Chordeiles virginianus vicinus; '^ and in 1905 

 Mr. Joseph Grinnell separated the birds from the Pacific coast of the 

 United States as Chordeiles virginianus hesperis.^ In the present 

 paper one further subdivision is made, by restricting Chordeiles 

 virginianus henryi chiefly to Arizona and New Mexico, and creating 

 a new race from the northern and eastern part of its former range, 

 Texas to Wyoming, under the name Chordeiles virginianus howelli.^ 

 Although some of these above-mentioned forms of Chordeiles vir- 

 ginianus originally passed as distinct species, all are clearly but sub- 

 species, since abundant evidence of intergradation exists in every 

 case, either through geographical or individual intermediates. 



1 Amer. Ornith., vol. 5, 1812, pp. 78-82. 



2 Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 2, 17S9, p. 102S. 



3 must. Birds Cal., Texas, Ore., Brit, and Russ. Amer., vol. 1, 1855, p. 239. 

 * Journ. f. Ornith., January, 1856, p. 5. 



E Auk, vol. 5, January, 1885, p. 37. 

 8 Auk, vol. 13, April, 1896, p. 136. 

 ' Auk, vol. 20, October, 1903, p. 432. 

 8 Condor, vol. 7, Nov. 22, 1905, p. 170. 

 » See p. 57. 



