NORTHERN BLACK SWIFT 



255 



"It seems very remarkable that so large a swift could have re- 

 mained iimioticed in North America until the present day." 



J. K. Lord (180)6) next reported it from British Columbia, saying: 

 "Amongst the earliest of these visitors I noticed the Northern S^vift 

 {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." 



On June 23, 1868, Ridgway (1877) "found it abundant" in the 

 valley of the Carson River, Nev.; "they were observed early in the 

 morning, hovering over the cotton-wood groves in a large swarm, 

 after the manner of Night-Hawks. * * * They were evidently 

 breeding in the locality, but whether their nests were in the hollow 

 cotton-wood trees of the extensive groves along the river, or in 

 ctevices on the face of a high cliff which fronted the river nearby, 

 we were unable to determine on account of the shortness of our stay." 



Frank M. Drew (1882) discovered this swift at Howardsville, 

 Colo., and collected a series of ten birds in 1880 and 1881; he says 

 that "they always hunt in flocks, range far above 13,000 feet and 

 breed up to at least 11,000 feet." During the next two decades it 

 was noted as a migrant in New Mexico and in California; but the 

 mystery of its nesting habits was not solved until 1901, nearly 45 

 years after its discovery as a North American bird. 



Spring. — It is as a spring and fall migrant that the northern black 

 swift is usually observed, as it covers a wide expanse of territory 

 in its movements to and from its more restricted breeding grounds, 

 often occurring in large scattered blocks, feeding more or less on the 

 way, and giving an interesting exhibition of its great powers of flight. 

 Samuel F. Rathbun (1925) has published in detail his numerous 

 observations on the migrations of this swift in the vicinity of Seattle, 

 Wash., to which excellent paper the reader is referred. He writes: 



During the vernal migration in the region about the Sound the first Black 

 Swifts will be seen sometime between the fifteenth antl the twenty-fifth of 

 May. Quite frequently during the latter half of this month there will occur 

 a spell of foul weather, and the arrival of the birds seems to be coincident. 

 When this fact was first noticed it was regarded as incidental, but as it 

 occurred with a degree of regularity our attention became attracted to it and 

 we then gave the matter especial attention. Soon after the first of May 

 we began to closely follow the weather conditions of this region and also those 

 existing far southward, and after a time a good idea was obtained as to 

 when to expect the arrival of the Swifts. In fact, on several occasions our 

 expectations were confirmed almost to a day. * * * From what we have 

 seen of this spring movement it appears to be soon completed, not lasting 

 much more than ten days. 



