The Poorwills 



seven white eggs are laid, usually upon the bare earth, but sometimes upon 

 a lining of grass, straw and trash. From time to time the birds eject 

 pellets containing fish scales, the broken testse of crawfish and other 

 indigestible substances, and these are added to the accumulating nest 

 material. Sanitary regulations are not very strict in Kingfisher's home, 

 and by the time the young are ready to fly we could not blame them for 

 being glad to get away. The female is a proverbially close sitter, often 

 permitting herself to be taken with the hand, but not until after she has 

 made a vigorous defense with her sharp beak. If a stick be introduced 

 into the nest, she will sometimes seize it so tightly that she can be lifted 

 from the eggs, turtle-fashion. 



The parents are very busy birds after the young have broken shell, 

 and it takes many a quintal of fish to prepare six, or maybe seven, lusty 

 fisher princes for the battle of life. At this season the birds hunt and 

 wait upon their young principally at night, in order not to attract hostile 

 attention to them by daylight visits. Only one brood is raised in a 

 season, and since fishing is unquestionably a fine art, the youngsters 

 require constant supervision and instruction for several months. A troop 

 of six or eight birds seen in July or xAugust does not mean that Kingfisher 

 is indulging in midsummer gaieties with his fellows, but only that the 

 family group of that season has not yet been broken up. 



No. 207 



Poorwill 



No. 207 Nuttall's Poorwill 



A. O. U. Xo. 418. Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nuttalli (Audubon). 



Description. — Adult: A central patch of pure silky white across lower throat; 

 below this, in abrupt contrast, a band of black; lining of wings clear ochraceous buff; 

 under tail-coverts clear creamy buff; the three outer pairs of tail-feathers tipped broadly 

 but decreasingly with white or buffy white; remaining plumage an exquisite complex 

 of skeletonized black centers of feathers with buffy and intermingled dusky margin- 

 ings, the whole producing a frosted or tarnished-silvery effect; black most conspicuously 

 outcropping on scapulars and on center of crown; buffy "silvering" most complete on 

 sides of crown, wing-coverts, and upper surfaces of tail-feathers; black of underparts 

 appearing chiefly as bars, where also mingled with pale buffy brown; flight-feathers 

 finely and fully banded, ochraceous and blackish. Bill black; feet (drying) dark 

 brown; iris brown. Young birds are much like adults, but the ochraceous element 

 inclines to rufescence, pale cinnamon instead of buffy; throat entirely ochraceous buff. 

 Length 177. 8-215. 9 (7.00-8.50); wing 142 (5.60); tail 88.9 (3.50); bill 12 (.47); tarsus 

 17.6 (.69). 



1053 



