NIGHTHAWKS, POOR-WILLS, ETC.: POOR-WILL 341 
southern Mogollons (Bergtold); one at State College October 30, 1915 (Merrill); 
and a very late bird November 24, 1889, near Apache (Anthony). 
It does not winter in New Mexico, but arrived in spring migration at Apache 
April 6, 1886 (Anthony); State College, April 11, 1915 (Merrill); and Grant County, 
April 15, 1892 (Hartert). It does not usually arrive in northern New Mexico until 
the last of April or early in May. It was first noted April 16, 1913, near Beaver Lake 
at 8,000 feet (Ligon). [One was taken, August 21, 1920, two miles west of the Santa 
Fe Indian School and a few had been seen on the Pinyon Flats around Santa Fe 
(Jensen). In the south, it was rather common in the Animas Mountains, Grant 
County, May 1920 (Ligon), and a specimen was taken at the north end of the moun¬ 
tains, at 6,800 feet, May 8, 1920 (Kellogg).}—W. W. Cooke. 
Eggs. —Usually laid on the bare ground, 2, white, unspotted or lightly marked. 
Food. —The smaller night-flying moths, beetles, locusts, chinch bugs, etc. In 
one stomach, 80 per cent of the contents was grasshoppers and locusts. 
General Habits. —A Poor-will was heard by Mr. Bailey at Lake 
La Jara September 18, 1904, and one taken two days later at Dulce. 
When flushed from under a yellow pine the moth-like, mottled bird 
flew, to alight on a spot of bare ground behind a log where he was so 
well hidden that he was not discovered until he flew again. This time 
he was winged and went to the ground. When approached he gave a 
surprising exhibition of the defenses employed by his kind. As Mr. 
Bailey says, he “ opened his mouth wide and hissed and blew and 
flopped about on the ground, always facing the enemy. Blowing like 
a blow snake and opening and shutting his mouth, he was enough to 
terrify all minor enemies. He was taken between five and six P. M. 
and his stomach was nearly empty, containing only two or three small 
hard insect heads and a gravel stone” (MS). 
When hunting for food the Poor-will skims swiftly and noiselessly 
close over the ground with irregular turnings and windings and rests 
between, and when its catch contains hard indigestible parts like the 
w T ing coverts of beetles, ejects them in the form of pellets, as do the 
hawks and owls, kingfishers, and others of similar food habits. A 
road through a forest with its abundant flies and insects is said to be 
one of its favorite hunting grounds. A powerful arc light with its 
attracted swarm of insects has been accepted as a modern improvement, 
three of the birds at least being seen by Mr. A. Brazier Howell, hawking 
about an arc light in the railroad yards at Needles. 
When in the Poor-will country in Colorado, Doctor Bergtold had an 
interesting experience. He says, “ While motoring at night through a 
particularly dark canyon, I noticed far ahead in the illuminated road, 
two small glowing pink spots which were extinguished when a bird 
flew from the road on the near approach of the car. The bird alighted 
again, some distance ahead in the road, when the pink spots reappeared 
and were identified as the bird’s eyes; it was shot and proved to be a 
Poor-will” (1916, p. 81). The same thing had been previously noted 
