300 BRANCH CHORDATA 



Order XVI. Machrochi'res. — To this order belongs a group of 

 remarkable flyers, such as the humming-bird, chimney-swifts, 

 whip-poor-wills, and night-hawks. These birds have long, 

 pointed wings. Most of them fly at dusk or at night and .^eed 

 chiefly on insects. 



The humming-birds are tropical or semitropical birds of the New World, 

 there being .some 400 or .500 species. The hawk or sphynx-moths which 

 feed at dusk may be mistaken for humming-birds. Apgar says several 

 species are found west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The 

 ruby throated humming-bird is the one we see about our trumpet-creepers, 

 honeysuckle, and salvia, seeking both insects and nectar. Chapman says 

 " the young are fed by regurgitation, the parent bird inserting its bill 

 into the mouth of its offspring and injecting food as though from a syringe." 

 Its note is a mere squeak or prolonged twitter. A humming-bird's nest is 

 about the size of a lady's watch, and the two frail, pearly white eggs, like 

 large peas, hatch in fourteen days. 



The swifts are widely distributed. They have strong wings. They can 

 fly straight up or down and feed on the wing. The legs are so weak that 

 some species cling to a vertical surface, using the tail to help support them, 

 instead of perching. The tip of each tail feather ends in a sharp point, 

 the shaft extending beyond the vane. They nest in hollow trees or chim- 

 neys. " The nest of our chimney-swift is a bracket-like basket of small 

 twigs gathered while the bird is on the wing, and glued together and to tree 

 or chimney by a glutinous saliva." 



The night-hawk resembles the whip-jjoor-will, and is usually compared 

 with it, bul it is a bird of the sky, and " its note is a loud nasal peent uttered 

 as it flies." It has an enormous mouth fringed above with bristles. It 

 eats insects which it catches on the wing. When it alights it chooses a 

 nearly horizontal limb on which it sits lengthwise, looking like a big knot. 

 It migrates to South America in winter 



The whip-poor-will is well known by its peculiar cry. It feeds on 

 insects which it catches at night as it flies. During the day it rests quietly 

 on the ground in the woods. 



Order XVII. Pas'seres. — This vast order comprises at least 

 half of the birds. They have four toes, three in front and one 

 behind, on a level with the front toes. The legs are rather slen- 

 der, and so placed on the body as to give it a horizontal position 

 when it rests. These are our most common birds. They vary 

 in size from the little house wren to the crow. Thrushes, blue- 

 birds, kinglets, chickadees, creepers, wrens, wag-tails, warblers, 

 vireos, shrikes, wax-wings, swallows, tanagers, sparrows, orioles, 

 crows, larks, and fly-catchers are representatives of this order. 

 They include some of our finest songsters. Most of them are 

 plainly clad, inconspicuous birds, working and singing, often 

 unseen. Not all of them, however, are unattractive in ap- 



