File:Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley (1902) (14749736445).jpg

Identifier: handbookofbirdso00bail (find matches)
Title: Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds -- West (U.S.)
Publisher: Boston New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
ery gray mixed with rusty; blackmarkings smaller and less distinct; white of throat and tail restrictedand tinged with buffy. Wing : 5.78, tail 3.67. Distribution. — Breeds in Upper Sonoran and Transition zone of BritishColumbia and the western United States, from the Cascades and SierraNevada east to central Nebraska ; winters from deserts along the southernborder south to Guatemala. Eggs. — Usually laid on the bare ground ; 2, white, unspotted or lightlymarked. Food. - - Night-flying moths, beetles, locusts, and other insects. In southern California in the dim evening light I have often seenpoor-wills hunting insects along the roads and had them come closeto me in a ranch dooryard when they would make short sallies fromthe ground, fluttering around with soft, noiseless flight, uttering alow chuck, chncl-. In the d;iytime their eyes are of little use. Apair of the birds th;it Mr. Bailey once came upon at Emigrant Gapshowed this sun blindness very strikingly. They had been sitting
Text Appearing After Image:
(GOATSUCKERS in the shade of a bush, and flew from his feet as he approached.One of them lit again in a patch of bright sunlight, and, apparentlyblinded by the light, sat there calmly until he walked up within afew feet of it. lie experimented with the birds, flushing them anumber of times, and found that when they lit in the shade, as theyusually did, they Avere not only much less conspicuous than in thesun, blending in with the leaves and rocks, but the shade enabledthem to see him clearly enough for them to recognize what he wasso that they would fly Avhile at a distance of four or five rods. The poor-will himself is less known than his voice, which is insep-arably associated with the warm still western evenings. Comingfrom the canyons in the moonlight it is one of the softest, mostsoothing sounds in nature. 418a. P. n. nitidus Breicst. FROSTED POOR-AVILL. Similar to nuttallii. but smaller said.paler, prevailing color of upper partsbrownish gray inclining to silvery or hoary, with

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