430 NOKTll AMERICAN BIRDS. 



In the month of June they luihc usury clay towards noon, whenever it 

 threatened to rain, and sonietinies returned again after sunset. When tired 

 of their exercise they always flew together towards the mountains, where he 

 had no douht their breeding-jjlaees existed. He states that when one of 

 these birds Hies iu chase of another, it emits a soft continued note, not 

 unlike a song. Having taken many ymiiig birds in tlie month of June, he 

 supposes that these Swifts l)reed iu April and May. 



It is stated by Sumichrast to liave lioen occasionally met with iu the table- 

 lands of Mexico, and that it is resident and breeds within the State of Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico. 



A single specimeu of this bird was known to Gosse to have been taken 

 near Spanishtown iu Jamaica, in 1843, in company with many others. Mr. 

 March, in his paper on the birds of this island, gives a similar account of 

 the liabits of this species to that of Dr. Gundlach. He states that it was 

 rarely seen except at early dawn, or in dull and cloudy weather, or after 

 rain in an afternoon. He lias sometimes procured specimens from Health- 

 shire and the St. Catharine HiUs. The only place known to him as their 

 actual resort is a cave in the lower St. Catharine Hills, near the ferry, 

 where they harbor in the narrow deep galleries and fissures of the limestone 

 rocks. 



Mr. J. K. Lord cites this species as among the earliest of the spring vis- 

 itors seen by liim in British Columbia. On a foggy morning early in June, 

 the insects being low, these birds were hovering close to the ground, and he 

 oljtained four specimens. He saw no more until the fall of the year, when 

 they again made their appearance in large numbers, among the many other 

 Ijirds of that season. He again saw this Swift at Fort Colville. 



Captain Prevost, E. N., obtained a single specimen of this bird on Van- 

 couver Island, which Mr. Sclater compared with Gosse's Cypsclus nigcr, 

 friJiu Jamaica. He, however, is not satisfied as to their identity, and is 

 inclined to regard the two birds as distinct. 



According to Cai>tain Feilner, this s])ecies breeds in the middle of June, 

 on high rocks on the Khinuith lUver, about eight miles above Judah's 

 Cave. 



The Ijlack Swift was seen liy Mr. liidgway, during his western tour, only 

 once, when, about the middle of June, an assembly of several hundreds 

 was observed early one morning hovering over the Carson River, below 

 Fort Churcliill, in Nevada. In the immediate vicinity wa.s an immense 

 rocky cliff, where he supposed they nested. In their flight they much re- 

 sembled Chimney-Swallows (Chcctura), only they appeared much larger. 

 They were perfectly silent. On the Truckee Eiver, near P\Tamid Lake, 

 in May of the same year, he ibund the remains of one which had been 

 killed by a hawk, but the species was not seen there alive. 



