112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



bird is commonly supposed to suck the boney from the flowers 

 when it thrusts its bill into them ; but this is a mistake, since it 

 is insectivorous, and is searching after insects, not honey. 

 About the 1st of June the humming-bird begins to build. The 

 nest is built of soft down taken from the stems of some of the 

 different ferns. Eggs two in number, white in color, elliptical 

 in shape. Period of incubation, fifteen days. 



Ch^tura pelasgia — Linnceus. 



Chimney Swallow. — Perhaps no other birds are so largely 

 beneficial in their habits as the chimney swallow, for in every 

 city, town or village there are thousands of them throughout 

 the summer engaged day and night in destroying insects. Afar 

 up in the sky you can see them as well as low down close to the 

 earth, and in mid-air just above the trees, everywhere, busily 

 engaged in catching their insect food. About the 10th of May 

 they commence building. The nest is placed in an unused 

 flue of a chimney, and is built of mud and sticks glued firmly 

 together and to the chimney with the saliva of the bird. This 

 forms a firm structure, in which four or five eggs of a pure- 

 white color are laid. 



Antrostomus vociferus — Bonaparte. 



"Whip-poor-will. — This bird is well known from its peculiar 

 song, which is heard through the first half of the night during 

 the mating and part of the breeding season. It arrives from 

 the South about the second week in May. In its habits it re- 

 sembles the following species, and is very beneficial, as its food 

 consists principally of the night-flying insects. This bird builds 

 its nest, or rather lays its eggs, — for it builds no real nest, — on 

 the ground near a log, or where some brush or leaves have col- 

 lected. The eggs are two in number, and very beautiful, being 

 a delicate shade of white, with spots and blotches of brown and 

 lilac all over alike. 



Chordeiles popetue — Baird. 



Night LTawk. — This bird is about as common in the city as 



the country, being most often seen at twilight flying about just 



over the tops of the buildings in the city, and over the treetops 



in the country, uttering his short note or " squeak," as Mr. 



