SOME QUEER RELATIONS 153 



lining. Woodpeckers also prop themselves with their tail 

 feathers, but against tree trunks. Not until swifts are a 

 month old do the lazy Uttle fellows cUmb out of their deep, 

 dark cavern into the boundless sky, which is their true 

 home. No birds are more tireless, rapid flyers than they. 

 Their small feet, weak from disuse, could scarcely hold 

 them on a perch. 



With mouths agape from ear to ear, the swifts draw in 

 an insect dinner piecemeal, as they course through the air 

 in their peculiar, throbbing flight, just as the whippoor- 

 will, night-hawk, and swallows do. Fortunate the house 

 where a colony elect to Hve, for they rid the air of myriads 

 of gnats and mosquitoes, as they fly about overhead, sil- 

 houetted against the sky. Early in the morning and late 

 in the afternoon are their hours for exercise. Although 

 the swift is actually shorter than a sparrow, its spread 

 wings measure more than a foot across from tip to tip. No 

 wonder it can fly every waking moment without feeling 

 tired, and journey from Labrador to Central America for 

 a winter hoHday. 



The Ruby-throated Humming-bird 



Length — 3.5 to 3.75 inches. A trifle more than half as 

 long as the English sparrow. The smallest bird we have. 



Male — ^Bright metallic green above; wings and tail dark- 

 est, with ruddy-purplish reflections and dusky-white 

 tips on outer tail-quills. Throat and breast brilliant 

 metallic-red in one light, orange flame in another, and 

 dusky orange in another. Sides greenish; underneath 

 lightest gray, with whitish border outlining the bril- 

 liant breast. Bill long and needle-like. 



