300 BRANCH CHORDATA 



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

 remarkalile 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 feed 

 chiefly on insects. 



The hiimming-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 insefting its )>\\\ 

 into the mouth of its ofTspring and injecting food as though from a sj-ringe." 

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

 about the size of a lad\'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. Thej- can 

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

 some species cling to a ^•ertical 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 van<'. 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-poor-will, and is usually compared 

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

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

 eats insects which it catches on the wing. \\'hen 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 b_\' its peculiar cr^-. It feeds on 

 insects which it catches at night as it flies. During the tlay 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 l(^c;s 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 varv' 

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

 birds, kinglets, chickadees, creepers, a^tcus, wag-tails, warblers, 

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

 crows, larks, antl fl>'-paii'lK>rs are rei^resentat i\-es of this order. 

 They include some of our finest songstc^rs. Most of them arc 

 plainly clad, inconspicuous birds, working and singing, often 

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



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