i54 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PIGABI^ — GYPSELIFOBMES. 



Analysis of Species. 



Large : wing near 8.00. Primaries dusky, with large wbite spot on 5 of them, in both sexes, about half 

 way from bend to point of the wing popetue 399,400,401 



Small: wing about 7.00. Primaries more or less spotted with tawny, with large white (J) or tawny ( 9 ) 

 spaces on 4 of them nearer point than bend of the wing. (Southwestern.) . ... . texensis 40% 



399. C. popetue. (Vox barb., incog. Figs. 390, 395.) Night-hawk. Bull-bat. Above, mot- 

 tled with black, brown, gray and tawny, the former in excess ; below from the breast transversely 

 ban-ed with blackish and white or pale fulvous ; throat with a large white ( ,J ) or tawny ( 9 ) 

 cross-bar ; tail blackish, with distant pale marbled cross-bars and a large white spot (wanting in 

 the 9 ) on one or both webs of nearly all the feathers toward the end ; primaries dusky, unmarked 

 except by one large white spot on outer ^i;e, about midway between their base and tip ; second- 

 aries like primaries, but with whitish tips and imperfect cross-bars. Sexes nearly alike : 9 

 with the white spaces on the quills, but that on the tail replaced by tawny or not evident. 

 Young similar, with the wing-spots from the nest, but the markings finer and more intricately 

 blended, in eifect more like Antrostomiis; quiUs edged and tipped with tawny. Length 9.00 or 

 more ; extent about 33.00 ; wing about 8.00 ; tail 4.50 ; whole foot 1.35 ; culmen scarcely 0.35 ; 

 gape about 1.35. Temperate N. Am., chiefly Eastern, abundant; migratory; breeds through- 

 out its range ; winters beyond. This species flies abroad at all times, though it is perhaps 

 most active towards evening and in dull weather ; and is generally seen in companies, busily 

 foraging for insects with rapid, easy, and protracted flight ; in the breeding season it performs 

 curious evolutions, falling through the air with a loud booming sound. Eggs 3, elliptical, 1.d3 

 X 0.87, finely variegated with stone-gray and other neutral tints, over which is scratched and 

 fretted dark olive-gi-ay ; but the pattern and tints are very variable. The young hatch covered 

 vrith fluffy down, whitish below, varied with blackish and brown above. It may be necessary 

 in this family for the young to be covered from the first, to protect them from the cold ground. 

 On being disturbed while brooding the female feigns lameness, dragging and fluttering about, 

 moaning piteously, and will sometimes remove her young. 



400. C. p. hen'ryi. (To Dr. T. C. Henry.) WESTERN NiGHT-HAWK. The lighter-colored form 

 prevailing in the di-yer or unwooded portions of western United States ; the gray and fulvous 

 in excess of the darker hues, the white patches on the wing, taU and throat usually larger ; the 

 under tail-coverts more nearly uniform ; but no specific character can be assigned. 



401. C. p. mi'nor. (Lat. minor, smaller.) Cuban Night-hawk. A foi-m found in the West 

 Indies, similar to C. popetue in color, but rather more tawny, and decidedly, smaller : wing 

 7.00 ; tail 4.00. Florida. 



402. C. acutipen'nis texen'sls. (Lat. acutus, acute; pernna, a feather: alluding to the sharp- 

 pointed wings. Of Texas : our bird a northern race of the S. Am. species.) Texas Night- 

 hawk. Smaller than the foregoing, and otherwise very distinct. General tone lighter, pattern 

 more blended and diffuse, more as in an Antrostomus. $, adult : Assuming upper parts gray, 

 this color intimately punctate with lighter and darker shades, more boldly marked with blackish, 

 chiefly in streaks, and with tawny and white, largest on the scapulars and wing-coverts. 

 Under parts barred, as in popetue, with blackish, tawny, and whitish, but the two former pre- 

 vailing. A large white V on the throat. Four outer primaries with large white spot on both 

 webs, nearer tip than bend of the wing ; inner primaries and all the secondaries spotted with 

 tawny in broken bars. Tail blackish, with broken gray or tawny bars, and a complete sub- 

 terminal cross-bar of white on all the feathers but the central pair. 9 lacking this white, all 

 the tail-feathers being motley-baiTed with gray and tawny throughout; the primaries all spotted 

 with tawny, larger spots of this color replacing the white of the $ ; throat-V tawny. Young 

 more suffused with tawny on a pearly-gray, black-speckled ground ; but young $ with the 

 white tail- and wing-spots from the first. Length 8.00 or more ; extent 30.00-32.00 ; wing 

 about 7-00 ; tail 4.00. S.W. U. S., valleys of Rio Grande and Colorado, To.\ns to California 



