138 



THE OOLOGIST 



in the movements of the Whip-poor- 

 will and Night Hawk when the two 

 birds are feeding, but the sustained 

 flight of the latter is quite different in 

 the open from the more curtailed wing 

 movements of the former in the woods. 

 I have but rarely seen the Whip-poor- 

 will flying and feeding in the day time, 

 though they sometimes do so in the 

 nesting season, and I once shot a speci- 

 men which had a crop full of plunder. 

 The Night Hawk is a well known feeder 

 during the daylight hours while the 

 young are small and I have seen the 

 old birds feeding and shrieking their 

 skeet as early as two o'clock p. m. But 

 I have never seen this habit of feeding 

 in broad daylight except when they 

 had young. The Night Hawk some- 

 times runs, or more properly, waddles 

 about on the ground in quest of food, 

 and I have seen an old bird gobble a 

 black cricket in broad daylight. Once 

 the observance of a rare sight was af- 

 forded me in a partial clearing, where 

 I beheld an old Night Hawk feeding its 

 one young one. This was in the day 

 time and the old bird flew close to the 

 nest and then scuttled to the little one, 

 which was a fluffy bit of down, with 

 closed eyes. The old bird placed its 

 bill within the mouth of its offspring 

 and apparently regurgitated the food 

 for the young. This act was repeated 

 three times in the space of a half min- 

 ute, after which the old bird closed its 

 eyes and both remained quiet on the 

 ground. I have repeatedly seen the 

 same act performed by the Chimney 

 Bwift on a nest in the gable of the barn 

 where they have nested continuously 

 for over thirty years. 



from close observation I am led to 

 think that nearly all insect-feeding, as 

 well as many other birds, feed their 

 young in this manner. The Ruby- 

 throated Hummer is another species 

 which macerates its food before feed- 

 ing its very young, and when offering 

 them delicacies, as honey and insects, 



thrusts its long beak way down the 

 throats of the nestlings, in an apparent- 

 ly aimless manner, but evidently to the 

 liking of the midgets in the nest. The 

 rapidity of movement in the Hummer 

 is remarkable and they could make 

 good flycatchers were it necessary. 

 They sometimes catch flies upon the 

 wing and I have seen them dart at 

 motes and specks in the air in sheer 

 sport as the trout snaps at specks in the 

 water from mere wantonness. 



The question of food of the Hummer 

 has been much discussed and the idea 

 generally prevails that the Ruby-throat 

 visits the flowers for the insects that are 

 attracted by the honey in the flowers. 

 This question shall be discussed in an- 

 other chapter. Suffice it to say that in 

 my opinion the Hummer makes the 

 same use of the honey from the flowers 

 that the Sap-sucker gets from the sap of 

 the perforated bark. 



The Flycatchers are exponents of the 

 art of lightning dash and perform in a 

 small way on the insects the same line 

 of work that the Falcons follow with the 

 birds as prey. Some, as the small 

 Green- crested, prefer the dark woods 

 where they are found catching the small 

 dipterous insects, while the larger spec- 

 ies are more open in their depredations 

 and I have repeatedly seen the King- 

 bird capture, dissect and devour the 

 harvest flies. The most rangy insect 

 that I have seen a Flycatcher capture 

 was a dragon fly, the giant libelula. The 

 insect knew its danger and sought to 

 evade its destroyer by flying in a small 

 circle and at a very rapid rate. The in- 

 telligent insect used excellent judgment 

 and foiled the persistent tryant for sev- 

 eral seconds. Round and round they 

 went and the bird did not gain an inch 

 on the devil's darning needle, as we 

 boys used to call these gavze-winged in- 

 sects, and I was wondering if this rea- 

 soning creature could manage to get 

 away from its fierce enemy, when sud- 

 denly the Flycatcher dashed across the 



