Texas nighthawk in the lower valleys. After I left, Mr. Willard
found a nest on July 9, 1922, at an elevation of 5,200 feet in the
Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. The eggs were lying in the open on
gravelly soil; just before the eggs were taken, a heavy hailstorm
occurred, during which nearly 6 inches of hail fell; evidently the
female had covered the eggs during the storm, or the eggs might
have been broken.
_Eggs._--The two eggs of the western nighthawk are
indistinguishable from those of other nighthawks, showing the same
variations. In shape they are between oval and elliptical-oval,
usually with little or no gloss, though some incubated eggs are
quite glossy. The ground color is dull white, or grayish white,
rarely “dark” or “deep olive-buff”. Usually they are quite evenly
marked; some are closely sprinkled with fine dots, but oftener
they are covered with small spots, streaks, or small blotches of
“olive-brown,” “sepia,” or “mummy brown”; occasional eggs are
marked with brighter browns, such as “russet” or “hazel”; very
often there are underlying spots or blotches of “pale Quaker drab.”
The measurements of 19 eggs average 30.2 by 21.6 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =33.0= by 21.1, 30.0 by
=23.1=, =27.3= by 21.5, and 27.5 by =19.7= millimeters.
_Food._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) says of the food of the western
nighthawk in New Mexico: “Ants in large proportion and also beetles
which are the adult forms of noted pests. Specimens taken at Fort
Stanton--caddice flies and gnats, together with injurious insects,
including ants, plant bugs, leaf hoppers, crane flies, click
beetles, wood-boring and engraver beetles, clover root weevils, and
nut weevils.”
Beal, McAtee, and Kalmbach (1916) say that these birds are “so
expert in flight that no insects can escape them. They sweep up in
their capacious mouths everything from the largest moths and dragon
flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and in this way sometimes
gather most remarkable collections of insects. Several stomachs
have contained fifty or more different kinds, and the number of
individuals may run into the thousands.”
Dr. Mearns (1890) writes:
In our summer camp, near the summit of the Mogollon
Mountains, a small beetle was annoyingly abundant, flying
into our tents in great numbers during the day, and at
night swarming around our log fires. As the twilight
gathered, hundreds of these Nighthawks appeared upon the
scene, preying upon the troublesome insects. Careless of
our presence at the fires and of the noisy hilarity of
camp, they flitted through the smoke with astonishing
freedom from diffidence, capturing myriads of the hated
beetles, as they passed and repassed above, between, and
around us, until their flickering forms were as familiar as
the stirring of the pine boughs overhead, and the fanning
of their wings almost as little heeded.
_Field marks._--There are two other races of this species,
_hesperis_ and _howelli_, that are likely to be seen within the
range of the western nighthawk on migrations; these three races
are not easy to recognize in life, though _henryi_ is lighter than
_hesperis_ and darker than _howelli_.
The western nighthawk can be distinguished in flight from the Texas
nighthawk by the position of the white wing band; in the western
nighthawk this band is about halfway between the bend of the wing
and the tip; in the Texas nighthawk the white wing band is nearer
the tip than the bend of the wing.
_Fall._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that after the breeding season and
in the fall the western nighthawks range up to higher altitudes
in the mountains, even as high as 12,600 feet. “They all desert
the State for the winter, beginning their southward journey soon
after the middle of summer. They are most numerous in migration
during August and have nearly all left [New Mexico] by the end
of September. * * * On the return journey in the spring they are
among the very latest migrants, seldom reaching northern New Mexico
before May 10.”
CHORDEILES MINOR CHAPMANI Coues
FLORIDA NIGHTHAWK
HABITS
This small race occupies the southern Atlantic and Gulf States,
from North Carolina to eastern Texas. In general appearance it
differs but little from the eastern nighthawk, except in size.
Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1914) characterizes it as “like _Chordeiles
virginianus virginianus_, but decidedly smaller; upper parts
averaging a little more mottled and spotted with whitish and buffy,
particularly on back, wings, and scapulars, and the ground color
averaging slightly less deeply blackish (more grayish or brownish);
posterior lower parts usually more purely white.”
Nighthawks are tender birds and spend their winters in South
America, from Colombia to northern Argentina. Even in Florida
they usually do not arrive until some time in April. Arthur H.
Howell (1932) says of the haunts of the Florida race: “The Florida
Nighthawk frequents open pine forests, old fields, pastures,
prairies, cultivated lands, marshes, and ocean beaches. Although
most active early in the morning and late in the evening, the birds
frequently may be seen flying about in search of food in bright
sunshine.”
_Nesting._--Mr. Howell (1932) says on this subject: “The two eggs
are deposited on the ground, with no semblance of a nest, in an
open situation, often in a pasture, broomsedge field, or wood lot,
or in palmetto scrub in open forest or on the prairie, or sometimes
among sparse grasses on or near the ocean beaches.”
Major Bendire (1895) says that Dr. William L. Ralph took several
sets of eggs in Putnam County, Fla., and that here “during the
breeding season at least, the Florida Nighthawk frequents mainly
low, flat pine woods, especially such as have recently been burnt
over, the eggs generally lying on the bare ground. Sandy soil seems
to be preferred for nesting places. One set of eggs was found by
him under a small orange tree in an orange grove on the side of a
sandy hill; three others were taken in flat pine woods, and in one
instance the eggs laid on a few fragments of charcoal left where a
fallen tree had been partly burnt, between the remaining part of
the tree and the stump, about 3 feet from each.”
On Cat Island, off the coast of Mississippi, I found the Florida
nighthawk very common in the extensive forest of tall, long-leaf
pines, with which the island is largely covered. Here, on June 16,
1910, I saw two pairs with young, the old birds fluttering along
the ground to toll us away from their little ones; and I found one
nest with two eggs on the bare, sandy ground among the pines.
The only other nests of this subspecies that I have seen were on
some low, sandy islands in Galveston Bay, Tex., where several pairs
were breeding on May 4, 1923; two nests were seen, the eggs lying
in slight hollows in the bare sand, in such situations as might
be chosen by least terns. In some of the southern cities this
nighthawk has developed the habit of nesting on the flat, gravel
roofs of buildings, after the manner of the species elsewhere.
_Eggs._--The eggs of the Florida nighthawk are similar to those of
the eastern nighthawk but will average somewhat more heavily marked
with darker colors and are somewhat smaller. The measurements of 38
eggs average 28.86 by 21.23 millimeters; the eggs showing the four
extremes measure =31.75= by 21.59, 31.59 by =22.61=, =26.42= by
20.32, and 28.20 by =20.10= millimeters.
The habits of the Florida nighthawk are not essentially different
from those of its northern relative; the two are not easily
recognizable in life; and the two forms are seen on migrations all
through the Southern States, where heavy flights often occur. R. J.
Longstreet noted an unusually heavy flight at Daytona Beach on May
11, 1926; “in about an hour, from 6 to 7 p. m., he estimated that
about 3,000 birds passed north over the beach” (Howell, 1932).
Heavy flights also occur on the fall migration, mainly during
August, when formerly large numbers of “bullbats,” as they were
locally called, were shot for food or sport. Dr. Chapman (1888),
writing of Gainesville, Fla., in 1888, said: “‘Bullbat,’ or as
it is more frequently termed, ‘Bat,’ shooting is here a popular
pastime, great numbers being killed for food, and in August,
when the birds have gathered in flocks, favorite fields may be
occupied at nightfall by as many as a dozen shooters.” This bad
practice is now outlawed, and very wisely, as the small bodies of
the nighthawks have very little food value, and the nighthawk is
one of our most useful birds; it has no objectionable food habits
and is so valuable as a destroyer of troublesome and injurious
insects, such as grasshoppers, beetles, gnats, mosquitoes, and
the destructive cotton-boll weevil, that it ought to be rigidly
protected.
CHORDEILES MINOR SENNETTI Coues
SENNETT’S NIGHTHAWK
HABITS
The nighthawks of the northern plains were given the above name
by Dr. Elliott Coues (1888), who gave as the characters of the
subspecies “silvery grayish-white predominating above, the white
below greatly in excess of the narrow, irregular or broken, dark
bars, and little or no rufous anywhere.” It is a bird of the
treeless plains and prairies, ranging from northern North Dakota
and northeastern Montana south to eastern Wyoming, northwestern
Iowa, and northern Nebraska. It migrates southward through Oklahoma
and Texas, and probably to South America.
F. A. Patton (1924) says of its haunts in South Dakota: “The
Sennetts Night Hawk, is a bird of a barren, isolated region, moving
ahead and away from settlements, to a thinly settled section,
preferring a dry, almost a desert region.
“Through the eighties and up until about 1890 this bird could be
found much over the entire State of South Dakota. At present its
range is confined to that part of the state from the Missouri River
to the Black Hills, frequenting the Bad Lands section, well up in
the foot hills, preferring barren knolls and stony places. Never
have I seen the bird or its eggs in any way concealed by grass or
vegetation.”
_Nesting._--The same observer writes: “A favorite nesting place
is in a cattle or horse trail over a stony knoll destitute of
vegetation and what sets I find are found mostly by the bird flying
from beneath my saddle horse. * * *
“The eggs are laid on a rock or stones. No depression or formation
towards a nest whatever, the eggs are plain gray in color and so
blend with the rock that though they may be almost at one’s feet
are difficult to see.”
_Eggs._--The Sennett’s nighthawk lays two eggs, the usual number
for the species, which are practically indistinguishable from those
of the eastern nighthawk, though they may average a trifle paler
with somewhat smaller markings. The measurements of 9 eggs average
31.1 by 22.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure =33.8= by 21.6, 31.5 by =23.3=, =29.3= by 23.1, and 29.6 by
=21.5= millimeters.
_Young._--Ernest T. Seton (1890) made an interesting observation on
two young nighthawks, which were apparently about three days old
and still retained the shell tooth on the tip of the bill; he says:
I gently touched one of them, whereupon it crouched down
more closely to the ground; but its companion, rising,
hissed with open beak and snapped savagely at my fingers.
On being further teased they ran off, exactly in the manner
of young ducks, with outstretched wings and with neck and
body at an angle of 45 degrees. After running a few feet
they stopped, squatted as before, and closed their eyes.
This they repeated several times, but at best they only
made little progress, and each time on being overtaken the
bold one was always ready to fight. * * *
In the light of these observations it seems likely that in
some of the cases in which the Night-hawks are supposed to
have carried off their young, the latter had really run
from danger, or were led away by the parent birds.
_Plumages._--Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1896) has called attention to the
fact that the females of this race do not show the characters of
the race as well as the males. He collected a series of 13 birds
in North Dakota, of which he writes: “Three females from the same
locality taken in June and July--one of them a breeding bird taken
with a typical male and two eggs--are similar but with the upper
parts darker and the entire lower parts tinged with buff, which
becomes ochraceous-buff on the throat. Two other female Nighthawks
from the same region, one taken on June 11, and the other with
two eggs on June 24, are quite different, the prevailing tint of
the entire plumage, except the greater wing-coverts, wings and
tail, being ochraceous-buff. These birds might readily be referred
to _henryi_, but all the males taken or seen during the breeding
season were unmistakably _sennetti_.”
He says further: “The pale colors of the male protect him
admirably, harmonizing with the dull gray of the fences and rocks,
perched on which he passes the day, while the darker colors of the
female render her less conspicuous when seated over her eggs on the
black soil.”
_Behavior._--F. A. Patton (1924) says that “these birds will perch
on a hot rock in the blazing sun the hottest summer day, the
rock so hot one cannot hold a hand on it. You would think they
would cook, they however seem stupid, they seem to lack the pep
of other Night Hawks, to get out and soar at twilight, but are a
quiet retiring bird, and I have known them on a hot day to let one
approach close enough to strike them with a stick.”
CHORDEILES MINOR HESPERIS Grinnell
PACIFIC NIGHTHAWK
PLATES 34, 35
HABITS
What was formerly part of the range of the western nighthawk
(_henryi_) is now assigned to this more recently described race.
According to the 1931 Check-list, it “breeds from southeastern
British Columbia to southwestern Saskatchewan, central Montana,
central Utah, and northwestern Wyoming south along the Pacific
coast to northern California and in the Sierra Nevada south to the
San Bernardino Mountains, southern California.”
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1905a) named this race and described it as
“most nearly resembling _Ch. v. virginianus_, but:--outer surface
of closed wing grayer toned; lower tail-coverts and feathers of
belly region more narrowly and sparsely dark-barred; and, in the
male, white patches on throat, wings, and tail more extensive.” He
remarks further:
In tone of coloration the male is much darker than in
either _Ch. v. sennetti_ or _Ch. v. henryi_. Altho somewhat
lighter than _virginianus_, this is in the direction of
pale gray and white rather than ochraceous. The extended
mottling of the otherwise blackish feathers dorsally is
responsible for this lighter tone, and especially notable
is the extensive silvery gray mottling on the wing coverts.
Yet this dorsal tone does not nearly reach the paleness of
_sennetti_. * * * The [white] patch on the outer primary
invades across the shaft to include the outer web; and the
same is observable of the patches on the tail-feathers.
* * * The female of _hesperis_ is gray rather than tawny,
and is thus at once distinguishable from the female of
_henryi_.
_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) writes:
A set of eggs of this subspecies was found by me on July 3,
1875, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, some 6 miles
northeast of Camp Harney, Oregon, laid among some pebbles
on the bare ground under a little sage bush. The sitting
bird allowed me almost to touch it, and was very reluctant
to abandon its eggs, which were but slightly incubated. On
my approach, it ruffled its feathers and emitted a hissing
sound, resembling somewhat the spitting of a cat when mad.
Their favorite nesting places in that vicinity were the
crests of gravelly ridges, always selecting a well-drained
spot, where the rains could not chill the young or eggs.
Bare, rocky table-lands are also frequently resorted to for
similar purposes, and less often the flat tops of bowlders.
Extensive burnt tracts also furnish favorite abiding places
for them in the more northern portions of their range; in
fact, in such localities they are fully as abundant as on
the more open sagebrush plains.
Henry J. Rust (1911) tells of a nest that he found near Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho, in an open space in a cornfield, where the
scattered cornstalks and a few weeds furnished scanty shade for the
young. D. E. Brown tells me that “on the prairies of Pierce County
[Washington] the bird nests on small patches of gravel, where the
two eggs blend perfectly and the bird itself is hard to see. In
King County, I find most of the nests in burnt-over sections. The
eggs are usually placed among the remains of a rotten and charred
log, where both egg and bird blend with the surroundings.”
A. Dawes DuBois has sent me some notes on three nests found by him
in Flathead County, Mont.; in one of these the eggs lay on a thick
bed of coarse moss which covered the rocky ground for some distance
around it; this was on the top of a high foothill. Of this nest
he says: “The bird was sitting when I approached, July 16. When
she saw me coming she closed her eyes and appeared to be asleep.
By covering the large shiny eyeballs with the lusterless lids the
nighthawk makes herself much more a part of her surroundings. The
eyes are not shut tight; a narrow slit is left through which to
peek. While I was in the tent blind, placed near the nest, her
eyes were usually wide open; but if I slipped out at the rear and
looked around the corner of the tent she slowly closed her eyes
until only a narrow slit remained.”
Dr. Grinnell (1908) found the Pacific nighthawk “to be a common
species of the Boreal and upper Transition zones” in the San
Bernardino Mountains. On June 18 he flushed a female from her two
eggs at an altitude of about 9,000 feet. “These were laid on the
bare ground in an open place among the pines. Nothing but a few
pine needles separated them from the granite gravel.”
_Eggs._--The eggs of the Pacific nighthawk are similar to those
of the eastern nighthawk, but will average somewhat paler. The
measurements of 38 eggs average 30.23 by 21.6 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =32.5= by 21.8, 31.5 by =23.1=,
and =24.6= by =19.0= millimeters.
_Food._--Dr. Grinnell (1908) says: “A specimen shot at dusk, July
4, 1906, was skinned at 11 o’clock the next day. The capacious
throat and gullet were found to be crammed with large winged white
ants. By actual count there were forty-three of these and many of
them were still alive, although it was at least fifteen hours since
they had been captured by the nighthawk.”
Like other nighthawks this subspecies feeds mainly during the dusk
of early morning and evening, but all observers seem to agree that
it hunts largely during the day, even in bright sunlight. Its food
consists of a great variety of insects, such as beetles, moths,
ants, grasshoppers, and other flying insects.
_Voice._--This nighthawk indulges in all the characteristic notes
of the species, but Mr. DuBois mentions a note that he heard on
August 20, which is somewhat different; he writes: “For two weeks
or more some of the nighthawks flying over the hill by the ranger
station have been uttering a _click-click-click-click_--rapidly
repeated and continued at considerable length. It is somewhat like
a series of high-pitched quacks. Other nighthawks, flying with
these birds, are calling the characteristic _peënk_ at the usual
intervals. I suppose the rapidly uttered quacks to be the notes of
the young.”
CHORDEILES MINOR HOWELLI Oberholser
HOWELL’S NIGHTHAWK
PLATE 36
HABITS
The 1931 Check-list gives the range of this subspecies as “southern
Great Plains and central Rocky Mountain regions; from Wyoming
to middle Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, middle and western Kansas,
northeastern Utah, northeastern New Mexico, and southwestern
Nebraska, casually to North Dakota.”
In naming this bird in honor of his friend Arthur H. Howell, Dr.
Harry C. Oberholser (1914) characterized it as “somewhat like
_Chordeiles virginianus sennetti_, but male with upper parts more
rufescent and somewhat paler, the dark brown color more rufescent,
less grayish, and the light markings much more buffy or ochraceous;
posterior lower parts more buffy, and the anterior dark brown areas
more rufescent.”
Robert B. Rockwell writes to me that this nighthawk is common
in the region about Colorado Springs and that he has seen it in
various other parts of Colorado, on the plains, in the valleys, and
in the mountains up to 10,000 feet altitude.
George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that it reaches about its
southern limit in the vicinity of Austin, Tex., and that its
habitat includes “the plains; barren fields; cowtrails in pastures;
roadsides and along railroad tracks; barren gravelly ridges, and
gravelly surfaces in the open, barren hills; backland plowed
fields; rocky hillsides; edges of woodlands; flat, gravelly roofs
of office buildings in town.”
I cannot find anything to indicate that the habits of Howell’s
nighthawk differ essentially from those of the other neighboring
subspecies. Mr. Simmons (1925) says of the fall migration in
Texas: “Gathers in flocks in late summer, mid-July to third week
in August; migration begins early in August, and by the end of
that month the local breeding birds have departed; hundreds pass
through, August 10 to August 30, but the last have not gone until
late in October. During one fall migration flocks containing
as many as 200 to 300 birds were observed on the open prairies
northeast of Austin. During both migration seasons the various
subspecies of nighthawks mix up on their way to and from South
America, so that identification of migrants is hopeless without a
specimen in hand.”
The eggs are similar to those of other nighthawks. The measurements
of 26 eggs average 30.2 by 21.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the
four extremes measure =33.0= by 21.9, 31.7 by =23.4=, and =26.3= by
=20.2= millimeters.
CHORDEILES MINOR ASERRIENSIS Cherrie
CHERRIE’S NIGHTHAWK
HABITS
George K. Cherrie (1896) described this race from a bird collected
on November 2, 1893, in the valley of the River Aserri, Costa Rica.
It is a small, pale race, about the size of _chapmani_. Nothing was
known about its distribution at that time, but it has since been
found to be the breeding form of southern Texas, from San Antonio
southward and into Tamaulipas.
Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1914) describes it as “resembling _Chordeiles
virginianus sennetti_, but decidedly smaller; general tone of upper
parts lighter and more ochraceous, the light areas more buffy or
ochraceous (less grayish or whitish) and somewhat more extensive;
and the dark brown areas of anterior lower surface less grayish.”
He remarks further: “This heretofore unrecognized race seems to
be in color most nearly like _Chordeiles virginianus sennetti_,
though in this respect also near _Chordeiles virginianus howelli_
and probably in reality most closely resembling this form, which it
adjoins geographically.”
Mr. Cherrie’s type specimen seems to have been lost; at least,
neither he nor Dr. Oberholser have been able to locate it, but the
full description of the type convinced Dr. Oberholser that “there
is no doubt that Mr. Cherrie had in hand a male nighthawk of the
_virginianus_ style in fully grown juvenal or first autumn plumage,
not adult, as he supposed. Allowing for this immaturity, the
characters that Mr. Cherrie gives are just those distinguishing the
small, pale race which summers in southern Texas.”
The nesting habits, eggs, food, and behavior of this nighthawk
probably do not differ materially from those of other races living
in similar environment. The measurements of 43 eggs average 29.3 by
21.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =32.5=
by =22.5=, =27.1= by 21.3, and 28.4 by =20.6= millimeters.
_Plates_
PLATE 1
GROOVE-BILLED ANI.
[Illustration:
Tela, Honduras, July 5, 1930. A. F. Skutch.
Female on nest.]
[Illustration:
Ulua Valley, Honduras, August 5, 1930. A. F. Skutch.
Nest of two pairs.]
PLATE 2
GROOVE-BILLED ANI.
[Illustration:
Tela, Honduras, July 21, 1930. A. F. Skutch.
Young 11 days old.]
[Illustration:
Tela, Honduras, August 15, 1930. A. F. Skutch.
Young about 6 days old.]
PLATE 3
ROADRUNNER.
[Illustration:
Fairbank, Ariz., May 18, 1922. A. C. Bent.
Nest in a willow.]
[Illustration:
San Diego County, Calif., April 9, 1929. A. C. Bent.
Nest in a pricklypear.]
PLATE 4
ROADRUNNERS.