Order i^aprimuigirormes 

 Goatsuckers: Family Caprimulgidae 



Nuttall's Poor-will: 



Phalaenoftilus nuttalli nuttalli (Audubon) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male: Plumage of upper parts moth-like, soft, and velvety, 

 finely mottled grayish brown with sharply contrasting velvety black bars and sagittate 

 markings; tail with all but middle feathers tipped with white; sides oj head and chin 

 black, white throat patch bordered by black below; rest of under parts barred except 

 for plain buffy under tail coverts. Adult female: similar, but with white tips to tail 

 feathers narrower. Young: upper parts more silvery gray mixed with rusty; black 

 markings smaller and less distinct; white of throat and tail restricted and tinged 

 with buffy. Wing: 5.78, tail 3.67." (Bailey) Nest: Eggs laid on bare ground. 

 Eggs: z, pure white or slightly marked (Plate 64, A). 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southeastern British Columbia, western North 

 Dakota, and western Iowa south to central Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. In Oregon: 

 Summer resident and breeding species in sage lands of eastern Oregon. One straggler 

 reported from western Oregon. 



SUCKLEY (Cooper and Suckley 1860) found Nuttall's Poor- will at Fort 

 Dalles. Bendire (1877) reported it rare at Camp Harney. Woodcock 

 (1902.) listed it from Baker County on Anthony's report; Miller (1904) 

 recorded it from Wheeler County; Peck (191 la) included it from northern 

 Malheur County; and Walker (1917^ recorded it from Wasco and Sher- 

 man Counties. Walker (i934a) also reported a specimen from Tillamook 

 County taken October 2.7, 1933, the only record we know of for western 

 Oregon. Although these are all of the published records for this little- 

 known bird, the files of the Biological Survey contain many manuscript 

 notes on its occurrence in practically every county in eastern Oregon. It 

 is present from May (earliest date, May 12., Lake County) to September 

 (latest date, October 6, Wasco County). 



Our own notes show it to be a widely distributed species that is gen- 

 erally overlooked because of its nocturnal habits. Abundant as it is in 

 places, we have seldom flushed it in the daytime but have had to wait 

 until sundown stirred the birds into activity before we could find them. 

 On one such rare occasion Dr. W. B. Bell and the writers, while tramping 

 across the slopes of Hart Mountain on June 14, 192.6, flushed a bird from 

 two eggs laid on the bare ground under a sage bush. So far as we can 

 learn, this is the only nest of the species actually discovered in Oregon. 



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