A FIRST GLANCE AT THE BIRDS 



Whether it is the effect of climate or not I cannot say, but cer- 

 tain it is the bird has become lazy and only calls poor ivill! 

 poor will! Upon still, summer nights this note may often be 

 heard in the Sierra forests, but the bird is so quiet and seques- 

 tered by day, and so closely resembles the color of the limb of 

 the tree or the brown of the earth upon which it rests, that a 

 person may consider it a piece of rare good fortune to meet 

 with the author of the plaintive call. The western night-hawk, 

 which belongs in the same family, is not so strictly nocturnal 

 in its habits, and may often be observed during the daytime 

 swooping about in the air after insects. 



The swifts, or chimney-swallows, as they were formerly 

 erroneously called, are represented in California by three of 

 the four North American species. The most common form, 

 Vaux's swift, is closely allied to the fcimiliar chimney-swallow 

 of the eastern states, although I have never observed it nesting 

 in chimneys. It breeds in hollow trees amid the redwoods, 

 gumming a slight nest of sticks to the inside of the tree by 

 means of its saliva. At dusk it comes forth with swift, cork- 

 screw flight, on fluttering wings, to catch its insect food about 

 the streams. The only other species with which I am familiar 

 is the white-throated swift, a larger, more powerful bird, with 

 a loud, chattering cry and less nocturnal in habits. I have 

 found it abundant about Capistrano Mission during the winter 

 season, and in summer breeding amid the rocks at Mt. Diablo. 

 The black swift also occurs in certain limited regions within 

 our confines. 



We all know the humming-birds, the tiniest of the feath- 

 ered race, with their beautiful iridescent coronets and necklaces, 

 their whirring, insect flight, their alertness and vivacity; and 



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