The Pacific Nighthawk 



or so; a white band crossing tail near tip, except on central feathers. Bill without 

 evident bristles, the horny part very small, but length of gape about an inch. Tarsus 

 very short, the middle claw enlarged, and with a curious, horny, comb-like process on 

 the inner edge. Adult female: Similar but without white band on tail, and with white 

 patch on primaries often much reduced; throat-patch tinged with ochraceous, and 

 suffusion of underparts by this color more pronounced, especially on crissum. Immature: 

 More finely and heavily mottled than adults, and with upperparts more heavily marked, 

 or even suffused with ochraceous buff. Length 228.6-254 (9.00-10.00) ; wing 200 (7.88) ; 

 tail 1 12.9 (4.44); exposed culmen 7 (.276). Females a little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — To appearance "little hawk" size — really smaller. 

 Central white spot in long wing distinctive from all but C. acutipennis texensis, from 

 which it requires further careful distinction. The wing of minor is not less "acute" 

 but more so; but the bird is larger, blacker above, less ochraceous below; the white 

 spot is larger, and not so near end of wing; flies higher; wizard (or bayard) notes dis- 

 tinctive. 



Nesting. — Eggs: 2; deposited on the bare ground, often among rocks, sometimes 

 upon a flat rock, or on the gravel roof of a tall building; grayish white or dull olive-buff, 

 finely and uniformly spotted or speckled (rarely mottled or clouded) with various shades 

 of olive, and brownish- or purplish-gray. Av. size 30 x 21.8 (1.18 x .86). Season: 

 June; one brood. 



Range of Chordeiles minor. — North America; in winter migrating through the 

 West Indies and Central America to Argentina. 



Range of C. m. hesperis. — The Pacific Coast district and the Sierro-Cascade 

 system, breeding from southwestern British Columbia south coastally to Humboldt 

 Bay, and Sierra-wise south to the San Bernardino Mountains. Winter home unknown 

 (the form being somatically almost indistinguishable from typicus). 



Distribution in California. — Summer resident in high Transition and Boreal 

 zones in northern California from the Warners to the Coast, and south through the 

 Sierras and adjacent highlands to Tulare County. Also in the San Bernardino Mount- 

 ains. Probably also on the summits of the higher desert ranges north of Death Valley. 

 Scattering appearances during migrations. 



Authorities. — Heermann {Chordeiles Virginian us), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 ser. 2, ii., 1853, p. 261 (Calif.) ; Grinnell, Condor, vol. vii., 1905, p. 170 (orig. desc. ; type 

 locality, Bear Lake, San Bernardino Mts.); ibid., Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. v., 1908, 

 p. 67 (San Bernardino Mts., habits, etc.) ; Bryant, Condor, vol. xv., 1913, p. 92 (food); 

 Oberholser, U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull. no. 86, 1914, p. 46 (monogr.); Pierce, Condor, vol. 

 xviii., 1916, p. 179, fig. (desc. and photo, of nest and eggs; San Bernardino Mts.). 



THE NIGHTHAWK is the laggard among the western migrants, 

 and it is always something of an event when his pouting notes, bayard, 

 bayard, first break upon the stillness of the evening air. We crane our 

 necks, too, to catch the first glimpse of the season — in mid-May, or 

 later, according to altitude. The way of the Nighthawk in the air is, 

 perhaps, the most varied, certainly the most eccentric, of any of the feath- 

 ered kind. He seems such a frail thing, as he goes tottering and careening 

 across the sky. We half expect to see him collapse, like a broken butter- 

 fly, or else get blown out of bounds. Now he minces along, like a school 



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