CHAPTER TWENTY 



HUMMINGBIRDS AND SWIFTS 



THE hummingbirds and 

 swifts belong to different but 

 related families. They are 

 birds of rapid flight. Their 

 narrow , and pointed wings 

 sustain them in the air even 

 when they are taking food. 

 Over the greater part of the 

 United States there is only 

 one kind of hummingbird and 

 one species of swift. 



Hummingbirds. Few birds 

 are so well known as the 

 hummingbirds. As they 



, , , 



hover over sweet blossoms 

 their diminutive size and 

 wings, rapidly vibrating, make 



them seem as much like insects as birds. In the eastern 

 portion of the United States and Canada we have only 

 one kind, the ruby-throated hummingbird. Small as 

 they are, some individuals of this species go north in 

 summer as far as Hudson's Bay. Some winter in the 

 extreme southern part of the United States; others 

 as far south as South America, where there are some 400 

 species of this family. Another species goes north in 

 spring along the Pacific Coast to British Columbia, 

 and a dozen or more kinds cross the Mexican border 

 into our Southwestern states. There are no humming- 

 birds in Africa, Europe, Asia, or Australia. 



353 



Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



FIG. 218. Long-billed humming- 

 birds. This is one of the many 

 species of hummingbirds found in 

 tropical America. 



