A First Glance at the Birds, 



often be heard in the Sierra forests, but 

 the bird is so quiet and sequestered 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 wes- 

 tern night-hawk, which belongs in the 

 same family, is not so strictly noc- 

 turnal 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 familiar 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 

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