BIRDS 



163 



4. Humming- Birds, remarkable for their small size, remark- 

 able powers of flight, and, as a rule, the metallic brilliancy of 

 their plumage, range from Mexico to the extreme south of South 

 America. The beak in the adult is long and slender, and the 

 tongue has an elaborate mechanism for pushing it out and pulling 

 it back, much as in woodpeckers. Only the first toe is turned 

 backwards. 



5. Swifts are swallow - like birds with very long pointed 

 wings, conferring considerable powers of flight. The short beak 

 is broad at its base, and the mouth is consequently wide. A 

 swift can easily be distinguished from a swallow by counting the 

 tail-quills, which are ten in number instead of twelve. The 

 distribution is world- wide, if New Zealand be excepted. 



The Common Swift (Cypselus apus) of the British Isles is 

 a summer visitor which nests in holes in roofs, walls, &c. With 

 the exception of a light patch under the chin, it is of a blackish 

 colour, the tail is forked, and the exceedingly small feet have all 

 four toes directed 

 forwards. This spe- 

 cies ranges over the 

 greater part of the 

 Old World. 



6. Night-Jars or 

 Goat - Slickers are 

 mottled forms with 

 broad beaks like 

 those of swifts, and 

 hair-like feathers in 

 the neighbourhood 

 of the mouth. The 

 spotted eggs are laid 

 in open places, and 

 the young are thickly 

 covered with down. 



Members of the group are found in all parts of the world, except 

 New Zealand and some of the islands of the Pacific. 



The European Night-Jar (Caprimulgus Eiiropczus] is found in 

 these islands from mid- May till September, or it may be later. Its 

 range includes most of Europe and Africa and South-west Asia. 



7. Hoopoes in many respects resemble the perching birds, 



Fig. in. Hoopoe ( Upupa epops) 



