Identifier: birdlifeguidetos00chapman (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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he bird is doubtless coursing low through thewooded fields and glades in its search for insects. During the day the Whip-poor-will usually rests onthe ground in the woods. Here also the eggs are laid,being deposited u)3on the leaves. They are two in num-ber, dull white, with delicate, obscure lilac markings anda few distinct brownish gray spots. Whip-poor-wills arrive from the south late in April,and remain with us until October. Swifts. (Family Micropodid^.) Swifts are the most aerial of all the small land birds.Our Chimney Swift, the only one of the seventy-five Chimney Swift members of this family that occurs inChatiira 2^ehi(/ica. eastern North America, is but five and Plate xxviii. r^ ;-^^;-f ii^ciies long, while its spreadwings measure twelve and a half inches from tip to tip.Its feet are proportionately small, and so weak that thebird can rest only by clinging to an upright surface.The tail is then used as a prop, its spiny-tipped feathersbeing evidently a result of this habit.
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Plate XXIX. RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. Length, 3-75 inches. Adult male, upper parts metalhc green ; throat metal-He ruby-red ; belly grayish ; sides greenish. Adult female and young, simi-lar, but throat white. 147 148 HUMMINGBIRDS. Swifts naturally nest in hollow trees or caves, and itIs only in the more densely populated parts of theirrange that they resort to chimneys and outbuildings.The nest of our Chimney Swift is a bracketlike basketof small twigs. They are gathered by the bird whileon the wing, and are fastened together and to the wallof the tree or chimney with a glutinous saliva. The Chinmey Swift arrives from the south aboutApril 20, and remains until 0(to1)er. Few birds arebetter known, and under the name of Clmnney Swal-low he is familiar to every one who distinguishes aCrow from a Robin. But, Ijeyond similar feeding habits,Swifts have little in common with Sw^allows; in fact, aremore nearly related to Hunmiingbii-ds. HUMMINCiBIRDS. (FAMILY TrOCHILID.E.) Hummingbirds are

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