86 



Adult female. Similar, but tliree outer feathers narrowly tipped with pale 

 buff and band on the throat creamy buff, instead of white. 



L., 9.75; W., 6.08; T., 4.65. 



Nest, none. Eggs, two, creamy white, much blotched and marbled witli 

 various shades of brown and lilac. The eggs are deposited on the ground, among 

 ferns and dead leaves, in woods or thickets. 



NIGHTHAWK. 



Adult male. Upper parts mottled with black, brown gray and tawny; below 

 from the ibreast barred with dusky black and white; throat with a broad white 

 band; primaries dusky, crossed in the middle by a conspicuous white bar; tail dusky 

 black, with broken bars of buff and a large white spot on all the feathers near the 

 end, except the middle ones. 



Female. Similar, but no white band on tail, and throat patch buff instead of 

 white. 



L., 10.00; W., 7.85; T., 4.60. 



Eggs, two, deposited on the bare ground, in open fields or pastures, some- 

 times in cities on a flat gravelled roof, grayish white marbled and speckled with 

 various shades of gray and brown. 



SWIFTS AND HUMMING-BIEDS. 

 Chimney Sv^ift. 



In its manner of feeding the Chimney Swift somewhat resembles the Swallows, 

 for which reason it is commonly called the Chimney Swallow, though it belongs 

 to an entirely different family and is nearly related to the Nighthawks. 



These Swifts never alight upon the ground nor upon any horizontal surface. 

 "When disposed to rest they do so upon their nest or else cling to the perpendicular 

 side of some hollow tree or building. The materials for the nest are merely dead 

 twigs which are broken off trees as the birds fly. 



In cool weather these birds Imnt for insects during the day, flying until late 

 in the evening, but when the bright hot days of midsummer come they work 

 chiefly at night, filling up their capacious mouths with great numbers of insects 

 with which to feed their ever hungry young. 



Descripl'io7i. 



Entire plumage dusky black ; grayish on the throat ; a sooty black spot before 

 the eye; shafts of the tail feathers, extending beyond the vanes. 



L., 5.40; W., 5.00; T., 1.90. 



Nest, a basket of twigs, glued to the inside of a chimney or wall of a building 

 with saliva of the bird. Eggs, four or five, pure white. 



HUMMING-BIED. 



As this gay little creature flits from plant to plant or hovers before the flowers, 

 thrusting its long beak deep into the corolla, the idea that it is rendering any 

 particular service does not often occur to the casual observer ; yet the bird has its 

 own part to play in the economy of nature, and no bird is more highly specialized 

 for the functions it is required to perform than this. 



