Frosted Poor-will 945 
dusk or sometimes before dawn, and it is more often 
recognized by its voice than by its appearance. It often 
alights on the bare ground, and when it does so it is most 
difficult to detect it. 
The eggs, two in number, are laid on the bare ground, 
sometimes in the open, sometimes sheltered by a tuft 
of grass or a bush. They are oval or blunt oval, creamy- 
white, with a faint pink suffusion which does not disappear. 
They measure 99 x °75. 
Frosted Poor-will. Phalenoptilus nuttalli nitidus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 418a—Colorado Records—Bendire 92, p. 157 ; 
Cooke 97, pp. 85, 162, 224. 
Description.—Very similar to P. nuttall, but paler and more silvery, 
and the dark marks of the crown and back fewer and more sharply 
defined ; below the transverse bars of the abdomer finer, paler and less 
conspicuous. Dimensions about the same, perhaps averaging w little 
smaller. 
Distribution.—From Texas to Arizona, north to southern Colorado 
and south-west Kansas, south to northern Mexico. 
Of three Poor-wills taken, by Captain Thorne at Fort Lyon, Mr. 
Brewster considered that one should be referred to this subspecies. 
Bendire and Goss believe that this subspecies is only a colour-phase 
of the typical Poor-will, as the ranges of the two are practically identical 
and they do not differ appreciably in habits, action or size. 
Genus CHORDEILES. 
Horny part of the bill extremely small; nostril cylindrical and 
rimmed but not tubular; gape with very short rictal bristles ; wing 
long and pointed, the outer (10th) primary almost equal to the ninth ; 
tail slightly forked, very short, about half the length of the wing ; 
tarsus about as long as the middle toe without claw, feathered about 
half way down. 
Two distinct species and several subspecific races of Night-Hawks 
are found in the United States, 
Key oF THE SPECIES. 
A. Larger; wing 7 to 8; white patches on, the five outer primaries, 
nearer the base than tip. C. v. henryi, p. 246. 
B. Smaller; wing 6 to 7; white patches on four outer primaries 
only, nearer the tip than the base. C. a. texensis, p. 247. 
