nilMXEY SWIFT. 119 



tober. During the fall migrations they often gather in 

 flocks of several hundred, and as they sail about you 

 may notice their best lield mark, a white spot in each 

 wing. Kighthawks lay two elliptical, mottled eggs on 

 the bare ground or a flat rock in open fields, and, rarely, 

 on a house top in the city. 



We see the Xighthawk and hear the Whip-poor-will ; 

 one reason perhaps why the birds are so often confused. 



WMp-poor-wiU, ^Vhile the Kighthawk is darting through 

 Aiitrostomusvociferus. the sky, the AVliip-poor-wiU is perched 

 Plate xx\ II. Qj-^ r^ rock or fence rail below, indus- 

 triously whipping out a succession of rapid idiip-poor- 

 wills interspersed with barely audible chucks. When the 

 call ceases, the bird is doubtless coursing low through the 

 wooded fields and glades in its search for insects. 



Dui-ing the day the Whip-poor-will usually rests on 

 the ground in the woods. Here also the eggs are laid, 

 being deposited upon the leaves. They are two in num- 

 ber, dull white, with delicate, obscure lilac markings and 

 a few distinct brownish gray spots. 



• Whip-poor-wills arrive from the south late in April, 

 and remain with us until October. 



Swifts. (Family Micropodid^.) 



Swifts are the most aerial of all the small land birds. 



Our Chimney Swift, the only one of the seventy-five 



CMmney Swift meml)ers of this family that occurs in 



ChatHrapehKjiot. castcm Kortli America, is but five and 



Plate xxviu. ^ ]j.^|£ jnclies long, while its spread 



wnngs measure twelve and a half inches from ti]) to tip. 



Its feet are proportionately small, and so weak that the 



bird can rest only by clinging to an upright surface. 



The tail is then used as a prop, its spiny-tipped feathers 



beinij evident! v a result of this habit. 



