THE DUSKY POOE-WILL. 159 



for the right spot, when she flew a few yards and alighted. A single egg lay 

 there in a slight depression on the clean and somewhat coarse gravel, Avhich 

 was rather smooth for a few feet about. Around was the usual brushy chaparral 

 cf the wash. The egg was brought to me by the boy in the evening, with the 

 bird, and a slightly smaller one had been taken the day previous from the same 

 nest." 



Mr. Lawrence kindly presented these eggs to the United States National 

 Museum collection, as well as the parent. This is not quite a typical Plialcenoi)- 

 tilus nuttalli californicus, but it approaches this subspecies closer than the true 

 P. nuttalli. The fact that the female returned to lay her second egg in the same 

 spot from which the first had been taken the day before sho■^^^s how tenacious 

 these birds are to a locality once chosen for a nesting site. To fiu'ther confirm 

 this, Mr. Rolla H. Beck Avrites me that he shot two of these Poor-Avills in June, 

 1894, in Monterey Count}', within a few feet of the spot where he tried to kill 

 one with a fishing pole two years previously. 



Mr. AV alter E. Bryant, in his "Catalogue of the Birds of Lower California," 

 makes the following remarks about this subs^iecies: "Noted at several places 

 between Tia Juana and San Pedro Martir by Mr. Beldiug. Mr. Anthony has 

 met with it up to 8,000 feet altitude, and says it winters in the low hills near 

 the coast. Poor-AA'ills AA-ere heard every evening on the steej^ hillsides at 

 Comondu and at various localities. The only specimen secured, a male, was 

 taken at Pozo. Grande, March 19, 1889. I followed the bird some time before 

 getting a shot, and each tin:ie that it was frightened it flew about 100 yards and 

 alighted on cactus about 3 feet high. The Mexicans call them 'Tapa-camino' 

 when they see them in the trail at dusk; but they also call tlie Night-hawks by 

 the same name. At Comondu they were known as 'Cow-day,' from the almost 

 perfect resemblance of their note to those words. In upper California the 

 birds, which I have frequently heard, utter the notes rapidly, and sounding 

 'poor-will' clearly; in Lower California the sounds are given quite slowly, and 

 resemble the words 'cow-day' rather than 'poor- will.'" ^ 



The only set of eggs of this subspecies in the United States National 

 Museum collection is the one already referred to, presented by Mr. E,. H. 

 Lawrence. These two eggs are indistinguishable from those of the common 

 Poor-will. Their ground color shows the same pale creamy tint, with a faint 

 pinkish tinge, and their shape is also similar. They measure 26.42 by 19.30 

 and 25.15 by 19.30 millimetres, respectively, or 1.04 by 0.76 and 0.99 by 0.76 

 inches. 



The type specimen. No. 25937 (not figured), from a set of two, taken near 

 Monrovia, California, on May 4, 1893, was presented by Mr. R. H. Lawrence, 

 as already stated. 



'Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 2d series, Vol. 11, 1889, pp. 287, 288. 



