35 6 ELEMENTARY ZOOLOGY 



or flickers (Colaptes auratus in the East, C. cafcr in the 

 West), the red-headed woodpecker {Melaucrpcs erytJiro- 

 cephalns], with its crimson head and neck and pure-white 

 <4 yest"; and the black-and-white downy {Dry abates 

 pubcscens] and hairy (/?. villosus] woodpeckers or ^sap- 

 suckers." The California woodpecker (M. fonnicivorus), 

 a near relative of the red-headed woodpecker, has the 

 curious habit of boring small holes in the bark of oak- or 

 pine-trees and sticking acorns into these holes. Some- 

 times thousands of acorns are put into the bark of one 

 tree, to which the birds come occasionally to break open 

 some acorns and feed on the grubs inside. 



The whippoorwills, chimney-swifts and humming- 

 birds (Macrochires). All the birds of this order are 

 remarkable for their power of flight. They have long and 

 pointed wings; their feet are small and weak and used 

 only for perching or clinging. All feed on insects, which 

 are caught on the wing by the short-beaked, wide- 

 mouthed swifts and whippoorwills and extracted from 

 flower-cups by the humming-birds with their long and 

 slender bills. The whippoorwill (AntrosttfmHs vociferns} 

 is common in the woods of the East and is readily known 

 by its call. Its two brown-blotched white eggs are laid 

 loose on the ground or on a log or stump. The night- 

 haw r k {Chordeiles virginianns], common over the whole 

 country, is seen at twilight flying vigorously about in 

 its search for insects. Its nesting habits are like those 

 of the whippoorwill. The sooty-brown chimney-swifts 

 (CJicetura pelagica], popularly confused with the swallows, 

 are the common inhabitants of old chimneys, in which they 

 build their curious saucer-shaped open-work nests. Their 

 eggs are pure white and number four or five. Of the 

 humming-birds but one species, the ruby-throat ( Trochihis 

 colubris], is to be found in the Eastern States, but in the 

 western and especially southwestern parts of the country 



