SWIFT— HUMMING-BIRDS 151 



ing early in the autumn for their winter quarters in 

 Africa. Their flight is marvellously rapid, as they 

 chase each other about in the dusk of evening, some- 

 times high in the air and sometimes near the ground, 

 uttering their shrill cries. See Plate 18, Fig. 107. 



This bird, which is known also as the Deviling, 

 occurs all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. 



The so-called "Chimney Swallow" of Eastern 

 North America is really a Swift. These birds are gre- 

 garious, usually being seen in large companies. Origi- 

 nally their nests were built in the holes of decayed 

 trees, but many of them now use the chimneys of 

 houses for this purpose, building nests of small sticks 

 glued together and attached to the walls of chimneys 

 with saliva. In perching, they use the stiff and 

 sharply pointed tail-feathers as a prop for the body 

 while clinging to upright surfaces. 



There are seventy-five known species of Swifts in 

 the world, only four of which are found in North 

 America. 



Humming-birds 



That the Humming-birds and Swifts are very 

 closely related no one now doubts, unlike though they 

 be in external appearance. 



Confined to the American Continent, and ranging 

 from the extreme south thereof as far north as 

 Canada, these birds are by no means to be regarded 

 as the jewelled darlings of the tropics, though it is in- 

 deed in tropical America that they are to be met with 

 in the greatest plenty. Numbering no less than four 

 hundred species, they present a relatively great range 



