The Poor wills 
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 August 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. No. 418. Phalsenoptilus 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 (5.50); bill 12 (.47); tarsus 
17.6 (.69). 
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