GOATSUCKERS 299 



type from year to year. If robbed the birds will lay again 

 near the same spot, often only one egg being the second set. 



In general the ground color of the eggs varies from white 

 to cream, buff and gray, more or less marbled, spotted, 

 blotched and finely dotted with black, drab, smoke color, gray, 

 lavender, lilac, olive and brown. They are usually rather even- 

 ly marked over the entire surface with such profusion as to 

 often obscure the ground color. Two eggs from the granite 

 covered roof, taken July 4, 1892, measure 1.25 x 0.87, 1.14 

 X 0.86. 



Two eggs from the "Ore Mountain," Katahdin Iron Works, 

 June 26, 1903, measure 1.19 x 0.87, 1.19 x 0.87. Several 

 photographs of the female were secured on this latter nest. 

 She was very tame, submitting to the operations of focussing 

 and making the exposures, although the camera was only about 

 ten feet away. At first she watched every move with some 

 alertness, but finally her eyelids closed, opening again fre- 

 quently, and finally she seemed asleep and nearly all of the pho- 

 tographs show her sound asleep on the nest. Indeed the hot 

 June sun beating down on this unprotected, rusty, barren spot 

 might well make her sleepy. As the birds are so very tame it 

 is almost impossible to find a nest without going so near as to 

 nearly step on the incubating bird. Sometimes the male bird 

 roosts near the female, but usually he is not in the vicinity, 

 and I have not been able to assure myself that he ever helps 

 in the task of incubation. 



Suborder CYPSELI. Swifts. 



Family MICROPODID.E. Swifts. 



Subfamily CH^TURIN^. Spine-tailed Swifts. 



Genus CHiETURA Stephens. 



425. Chcetura pelagica (Linn.). Chimney Swift; Chimney 

 Swallow. 



