THE HUMMINGBIRD FAMILY 7 



an aerial gymnast, and feeds only when on the wing. Its 

 flight is very graceful, and both in manner of flight and per- 

 sonal appearance it so closely resembles a short-tailed swallow 

 that there are few persons who can distinguish the difference 

 in the flying birds. 



One strongly marked peculiarity of this bird is that the 

 tip of each tail-feather ends in a sharp, wire-like point, caused 

 by the shaft of the feather being projected considerably be- 

 yond the vane. The eastern Chimney Swift ranges westward 

 to the Great Plains. On the Pacific slope is found another 

 species, a close parallel to the preceding, called the Vaux 

 Swift. The White-Throated Swift of the Pacific states is dis- 

 tinguished by its white throat and breast, and a few white 

 patches elsewhere. 



THE HUMMINGBIRD FAMILY 



Trochilidae 



For twenty years or more the exquisite gem-like birds be- 

 longing to this Family have been persecuted by the millinery 

 trade, and slaughtered by thousands for hat ornaments. In 

 the European centres of the odious "feather trade" the traffic 

 in Hummingbird skins still continues. At the regular feather 

 auction of August, 1912, in London, the New York Zoological 

 Society purchased 1,600 Hummingbird skins at two cents 

 each. In the first three of these sales for 1912 the total sales 

 of Hummingbird skins were 41,090. In 1913, by an act of 

 Congress, the odious traffic in wild birds' plumage for millinery 

 purposes was stopped forever in the United States and all its 

 territorial possessions. 



