168 LIFE HISTOEIEg OP NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



mountain ranges throughout the West, where it is found as a summer resident 

 up to altitudes of 10,000 feet. None of these birds appear to winter within the 

 limits of the United States. It usually makes its appearance along our southern 

 border about April 1, and returns to its winter haunts again late in September. 

 Occasionally a few stragglers may arrive somewhat earlier in the spring, as 

 Mr. H. P. Lawrence writes me: "I am sure I heard the cry of a Nighthawk at 

 Olympia, Washington, on March 29, 1890. Tliey are common here in the 

 summer. I have often seen them take dust baths in the evening in the paths 

 near an adjacent cottage." Mr. R. MacFarlane reports this subspecies as a 

 common summer resident in the vicinity of Forts St. James and St. Greorge, in 

 the interior of British Columbia, in about latitude 55°, and he sent two sets of 

 eggs and a skin from there to the United States National Museum collection in 

 1889. These points mark, as far as known, the northern limits of its range. I 

 know it to be common throughout the sagebrush plains and the prairie regions 

 of northern Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and there is no doubt that it also 

 occurs in similar regions throughout eastern Alberta, Assiniboia, and western 

 Manitoba; it is likely to be found farther north as well. The eastern limits of 

 its range extend well into Minnesota, Iowa, northern and central Illinois, where 

 it is the prevailing form found throughout the prairie regions of these States. 

 It is also common throughout the middle and western portions of Kansas, the 

 Indian Territory, and southwestern Texas. Along our southern border it appears 

 to be rather rare, and I observed but very few of these birds in the lower valleys 

 and desert regions in southern Arizona. Here they appear to be mainly con- 

 fined to the barren mountain ranges, and only breed sparingly at the lower 

 altitudes. Dr. Edgar A. Mearns reports it, however, to be the common form 

 of Nighthawk in the Animas Valley, near the international boundary line, in 

 southwestern New Mexico, and he took a set of eggs here on July 3, 1892, 

 which are now in the United States National Museum collection. In his inter- 

 esting paper, "Observations on the Avifauna of portions of Arizona," the Doctor 

 makes the following remarks on this subspecies : 



"I have never known this species to infringe on the territory of the Texan 

 Nighthawk during the breeding season ; each keeps to its own ground, the latter 

 being confined to the region below the pines, and the former residing in the 

 pines and spruces, breeding in great numbers in these limited areas. A single 

 migrant was taken at Fort Verde on May 9, 1885. Two fresh eggs were taken 

 at Flagstaff on June 18, 1887, in a level place, bestrewn with volcanic scoria, 

 beneath the pines. In our summer camp, near the summit of the MogoUon 

 Mountains, a small beetle was annoyingly abundant, flying into our tents in 

 great numbers during the day and swarming around our log fires at night. As 

 the twilight gathered, hundreds of these Nighthawks appeared upon the scene, 

 preying upon the troublesome insects. Careless of our presence at the fires 

 and of the noisy hilarity of camp, they flitted through the smoke with astonish- 

 ing freedom from difiidence, capturing myriads of the hated beetles as they 

 passed and repassed above, between, and around us, until their flickering forms 



