The Mating Antics of the Pacific Nighthawk 



By MABEL A. STANFORD 



With Photographs by Wright M. Pierce 



THE mating antics of the Pacific Nighthawk are unusual and interesting. 

 This bird, which Hves in British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, and 

 many western states, migrates from Colorado to Nicaragua and is found 

 in southern California from May to August. It has one or two unusual tricks 

 to lure the intruder from its marbled eggs and fuzzy, camouflaged young. 



The scientific name is interesting in relation to the bird's mating habits. 

 Besides the name for Nighthawk, it contains the words which mean a stringed 



YOUNG NIGHTHAWK NEARLY FLEDGED 

 Photographed by Wright M. Pierce, Claremont, Calif. 



musical instrument and evening. The whole name is a large one for such a 

 compact bird, with its long, slender wings and its brown, gray, and tawny 

 coloring — Chordeiles virginianus hesperis. Popularly, the eastern Nighthawk, 

 to which this species is closely related, is known as the 'BuUbat' because of 

 its peculiar, booming, nasal utterance. 



During the mating and nesting season, the Pacific Nighthawks, which 

 forage in" bands at twilight and early morning (even later in cloudy weather) 



269) 



