V ° 1 i^07 :iV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Dawson Counties, Mont. 389 



THE BIRDS OF CUSTER AND DAWSON COUNTIES, 

 MONTANA. 1 



BY E. S. CAMERON, F. Z. S. L., WE. B. O. U. 



Plates XV and XVI. 



92. Phalsenoptilus nuttallii. Poor-will. — Common in both counties. 

 Arrives from the middle to the end of May. I have not heard it call after 

 the end of August. Poor-wills begin to fly about at dusk and are seldom 

 seen, but on every ranch "those shadowy birds, consorts of bats and owls, 

 — those scarce-embodied voices of the night," are heard during June and 

 July. The Poor-will would rarely be seen by daylight without a dog to 

 start it from the long grass and sage-brush in which it lies. On May 27, 

 1894, a collie flushed three together on Ten Mile Creek, Custer County, 

 when two were shot by a 'tenderfoot' which proved to be both females. 

 Each contained an egg which in one was ready to lay. Poor-wills bred 

 upon my ranch near Terry, and in 1898 the young could fly on August 21. 

 They visited the water-troughs at my ranch in Dawson County of an even- 

 ing, and on June 9, 1906, three alighted on the hitching post about 7.30 

 p. m. Here two fought while the third looked on, the combatants uttering 

 their cry of poor-will and a peculiar booming or croaking which differs from 

 the noise made by the Nighthawk. Unlike the eggs of the latter, those of 

 the Poor- will are scarcely ever seen; the bird seems to possess an unusual 

 instinct for laying them in out of the way places. On June 26, 1907, 

 Mr. M. M. Archdale flushed a Poor-will from her two white eggs on a steep 

 hill-side in some rough pine brakes at his ranch near Knowlton. In this 

 unfrequented place the eggs were fully exposed on the bare earth amidst 

 the pines. On June 28, we went together to the place intending to photo- 

 graph the eggs, but they had been already removed by the bird. 



93. Chordeiles virginianus henryi. Western Nighthawk. — Abun- 

 dant. Ubiquitous in both counties. Arrives, on an average, in the first 

 week of June, and leaves during the first week of September. By the end 

 of August Nighthawks are very scarce. On June 28, 1903, sixty-nine of 

 these birds passed me flying west at 6:30 p. m., when riding at my ranch 

 in Dawson County. During July, 1905 and 1906, from fifty to sixty 

 might be counted almost any evening from the door at the same place. 

 Their manner of flying was to give twelve rapid wing beats and then sail 

 in circles. Nighthawks lay their two eggs in any open situation in the 

 badlands or on the prairie indifferently. They probably rear two broods 



1 Continued from p. 270. For maps of the region see maps facing p. 244. — ■ N. B. 

 On map of Dawson County, for " Scale, 12 miles = l inch " read Scale, 18 miles=l 

 inch. On map of Custer County, for " Scale, 12 miles = l inch." read 19.4 miles = l 

 inch. 



