64 NOETHEEN SWIFTS. 



river, at an average distance from it of nine miles. 

 This part of it is quite or very nearly a dead level, 

 and very little above the sea, densely timbered, 

 and terminating at the spurs of the Cascade 

 Mountains. Here the Sumass prairie and its lake, 

 so often referred to, are situated. The lake is 

 ten miles long, and about four-and-a-half wide. 

 I have already explained how the prairie is 

 flooded, and that in June the water again sub- 

 sides ; after this the growth of the various grasses 

 and sedges (Cyperacece) is rapid beyond any- 

 thing I have ever witnessed elsewhere. In two 

 months the grass attains a height of four and 

 seven feet. As the water disappears, swarms of 

 insects accumulate, as if by magic ; birds of 

 various species arrive to devour them, build 

 their nests, and rear their young. 



Amongst the earliest of these visitors I noticed 

 the Northern Swift (Nephocaetes Niger, Baird). 

 It was a foggy day early in June, and, the insects 

 being low, the birds were hovering close to the 

 ground. I shot four. The next day I searched in 

 vain, but never saw the birds again until the fall 

 of the year, when they a second time made their 

 appearance in large numbers birds of the year 

 as well as old ones. From their habit of flying at 

 a great height, it is extremely difficult to obtain 



