178 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



food. Before the discovery of America, when the rude 

 smoke-holes that served as chimneys for the wigwams and 

 long-houses of Choctaw or of Iroquois extended no invitation 

 for these birds to nest in them, hollow trees more or less 

 open at the top took the place of the modern chimney. In 

 thinly settled districts of the West such trees are still used 

 for the purpose. The nest is built of little twigs broken off 

 from the trees while the bird is in full flight, which are stuck 

 together and to the sides of the chimney or tree by saliva. 

 The same nest is sometimes used for two or three seasons. 

 A large number of birds often choose the same tree or 

 chimney for breeding and roosting purposes. 



The chimney-swifts are abroad at all hours of the day and 

 night, but fly most freely from earliest dawn till soon after 

 sunrise, and again before sunset till after dark. Doubtless at 

 such times the insects on which they feed are most abundant 

 in the air. Their food is varied, probably consisting of almost 

 all the flying insects with which they come in contact. Three 

 specimens studied by Professor S. A. Forbes had eaten ants, 

 moths, ground-beetles, rove-beetles, plant-beetles, flies, bugs, 

 and spiders. The young are fed largely upon grasshoppers 

 when these are abundant, and at other times on various kinds 

 of insects. 



There has long been prevalent a popular idea that these 

 birds winter in a lethargic state in chimneys and hollow trees, 

 but all well-informed ornithologists declare this statement to 

 be preposterous. According to Stejneger the chimney-swifts 

 are found in Mexico in winter. It would be very strange if a 

 bird of such powers of flight as this should choose to sleep 

 away the cold season, instead of basking in the sunshine of 

 the South to be reached in so short a time. 



THE NIGHTHAWK AND THE WHIPPOORW'ILL. 



The strange family of goatsuckers, or night-jars (Caprimul- 

 , is represented in the United States by eleven species 



