CYPSELIDA, SWIFTS.—GEN. 117, 118. 183 
Subfamily CHAETURINA. Spine-tailed Swifts. 
Toes with the normal number of phalanges; hind toe not reversed, but some- 
times versatile; our species have it obviously elevated, and should have come in 
the Key under A, like gen. 114, 115; but it has not been technically so considered 
(compare § 87, p. 49). Tarsi never feathered. In the principal genus, Chetura, 
containing about half the species of the subfamily, of various parts of the world, 
the tail feathers are stiffened and mucronate by the projecting rhachis. The other 
genera are Collocalia and Dendrochelidon of the Old World; Cypseloides, and the 
scarcely different Nephocetes, of the New. 
117. Genus NEPHC:CETES Baird. 
Black Swift. Blackish, nearly uniform. Length nearly 7; wing as much ; 
tail about 3, forked, stiffish, but not mucronate. Western America. Bp., 
142; Exxior, pl. 20; Coor., 349. . . . . . NIGER Var. BOREALIS. 
118. Genus CHATURA Stephens. 
Chimney Swift. Chimney “Swallow.” Sooty brown witha faint green- 
ish gloss above, below paler, becoming gray on the throat; wings black. 
Length about 5; wing the same; tail 2 or 
less, even or a little rounded, spiny. Eastern 
United States, migratory, very abundant in 
summer. Like the swallows, which this bird 
so curiously resembles, not only in its form, 
but in its mode of flight, its food, and twitter- 
ing notes, it has mostly forsaken the ways of 
its ancestors, who bred in hollow trees, and 
o 
<= 
now places its curious open-work nest, of bits p,q. 449, Ghnee Sui ein’ manronnts 
of twig glued together, inside disused rece 
chimneys. WIizs., v, 48, pl. 39, f. 1; Nurr., i, 609; Aup., i, 164, pl. 44; 
oy, 12 re : eens por SPEGASGEA., 
Vaux’s Swift. Satan 2 alee? flip fiat PiGah: ; smaller; length 44; 
wing the same. Pacific Coast, U.S. Seems to be different from pelasgia, 
but perhaps the same asa S. Am. species. Bp., 145; Coor., 351. vauxu. 
Family TROCHILIDA. Hummingbirds. 
Tenuirostral Picarie. These beautiful little creatures will be known on sight ; 
and as the limits of this work preclude any adequate presentation of the subject, I 
prefer merely to touch upon it. The hummers are peculiar to America. Species 
occur from Alaska to Patagonia, but we have a mere sprinkling in this country ; 
the centre of abundance is in tropical South America, particularly New Granada. 
Nearly five hundred species are current; the number of positively specific forms 
may be estimated at about three hundred. The genera or subgenera vary with 
authors from fifty to a hundred and fifty ; perhaps half the latter number of generic 
names may be eligible. The birds appear to fall naturally into two groups; one of 
these, Phithornithine, representing about one-tenth of the whole, is composed 
