340 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Smith, who heard two birds at Rodeo, March 2, 1917, above 4,000 feet, in freezing 
weather.]—W. W. Cooke. 
Eggs. —Laid in a slight depression on the ground, 1 or 2, white, with faint mark¬ 
ings. 
General Habits. —When we were making a night’s camp at the 
head of McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains, as the 
darkness settled down and we were trying to keep warm close to a 
small camp fire under the pines, to our delight the dusky forms of 
Stephens Whip-poor-will—a new bird to me—appeared from the 
shadows and wavered around us, calling in soft burred tones, whip- 
pur’r-wilV, whip-pur’r-will', whip-pur’r-wiW. 
In the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona, where Mr. Stephens 
heard the first arrivals about the middle of May, by June 1, he says, 
“they were as common as I ever knew them [Whip-poor-wills] to be in 
the east; sometimes I could hear three or four whistling at once” (in 
Brewster, 1880, p. 71). 
They seem to frequent the rocky sides of canyons. While feeding, 
Doctor Fisher says, “they often alight on a prominent rock or dead stub, 
from which they launch out after passing insects, and return to wait 
for other prey” (in Bendire, 1895, p. 152). 
POOR-WILL: Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nuttalli (Audubon) 
Plate 35 
Description. — Length: 7.2 to 8.5 inches, wing 5.6-5.7, tail 3.7-3.9. Adult: 
Head narrowly barred with black; plumage of upperparts soft and velvety, moth-like; 
finely mottled with brownish gray or grayish brown; with sharply contrasting velvety 
black bars and sagittate markings; square tail with all but two middle pairs of feathers 
more or less banded with black, gray, and buffy, tipped with white; wings with 
ochraceous-buff, black, and gray markings; primaries heavily banded with black; 
sides of head and chin sooty or brown, throat silky white, bordered by black or brown 
below; rest of underparts (except tail coverts) barred. Young: Similar, but markings 
less sharply defined, especially on underparts, and throat patch buff instead of white. 
Range. —Breeds in Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones from southeastern 
British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, arid northwestern North Dakota south to central 
Texas, northern Coahuila, western Arizona, and Cape Region of Lower California; 
winters from southeastern California and southern Texas to central Mexico. 
State Records. —The Poor-will found most commonly in the foothills (Ligon), 
occupies the western part of New Mexico, east to the Guadalupe Mountains, Carls¬ 
bad, Cedar Point, near Roswell, Cuervo (Bailey); near Koehler Junction (Kalm- 
bach); Oak Canyon and Bear Canyon (Howell); but is less common east of the Rio 
Grande than in the western part of the State. [A pair was seen several times in 
June, 1924, in Santa Fe Canyon at about, 10,000 feet (Jensen). It was abundant in 
the low hills west of the Rio Grande, from Magdalena south (Ligon, 1916-1918.)] 
It breeds from the lowest altitudes as at Carlsbad, 3,100 feet (Ligon), Mcsilla, 3,800 
feet (Merrill), and at 4,700 feet near Hachita (Goldman), up to 7,500 feet near Taos 
(Bailey), and rarely to 7,800 feet on the Pecos River near Willis (Henshaw). 
In the fall migration it remained in the southern part of the State near Old Fort 
Tularosa until October 2, 1906 (Bailey); one was seen October 21, 1907, in the 
