File:Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande valley (1904) (14752248601).jpg

Identifier: handbookofbirds00bail (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: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds -- West (U.S.)
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ilvery gray mixed with rusty; blackmarkings smaller and less distinct; white of throat and tail restrictedand tinged with buffy. Wing : 5.7S, 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, chuck. In the daytime their eyes are of little use. Apair of the birds that Mr. Bailey once came upon at Emigrant Gapshowed this sun blindness very strikingly. They had been sitting
Text Appearing After Image:
&^^ GOATSUCKERS 225 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. He experimented with the birds, flushing them anumber of times, and found that when they lit in the shade, as theyusually did, they were 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 while 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 Brewst. Frosted Poor-will. Similar to nuttallii, but smaller and paler, prevailing color of upper partsbrownish gi-ai/ inclining to silver// or hoar

Note About Images