NORTHERN BLACK SWIFT 257 



Mr. Vrooman's report of finding the black swift nesting in crev- 

 ices in sea cliffs and laying only one large Qg<;; was received with 

 incredulity by many ornithologists. The generally accepted theory 

 was that the bird would be found nesting in cliffs in the mountains, 

 as indicated by Major Bendire's observations on the upper Columbia 

 Kiver in 1879; here, he reported (1895) "quite a colony nested 

 in a high perpendicular cliff," which "was utterly inaccessible, being 

 fully 300 feet high." Others had seen the swifts in similar localities 

 elsewhere, where they were doubtless breeding, but no one had ever 

 actually seen a nest. The incredulous ones thought that Mr. Vroo- 

 man must have found an egg of some small petrel, rather than that 

 of the swift. Mr. Vrooman remained silent over the skepticism but 

 kept steadily at work every season, sometimes without success, and 

 eventually collected enough eggs to convince his critics. There are six 

 eggs and one nest of this swift in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, 

 all from Mr. Vrooman, including the type egg and nest ; the latter is 

 a clod of mud, rather deeply hollowed, and now dry and hard, with 

 the tuft of dried grass in front of and partly surrounding it. 



Many years passed before we learned anything about the inland 

 nesting habits of the northern black swift, and, strangely enough, 

 the first report came from a locality that is not included in the 

 Check-list range of the species. This report came to me in a letter 

 from Clarence E. Chapman, who discovered a nest in Johnson Canyon, 

 near Banff, Alberta, on September 2, 1919. He describes the incident 

 so clearly and convincingly that there can be no doubt about it. His 

 letter states : "A walk of a mile brought us up through a lovely, small 

 canj^on to the falls; the upper canyon, just below the falls, was crossed 

 by a high footbridge. While I was standing on this bridge, my 

 attention was attracted by a bird flapping its wings under and against 

 the overhanging rock wall. Mrs. Chapman and I each had high- 

 power glasses (8 diameters). We saw a young black swift, not quite 

 ready to fly, and close watching showed that it was exercising and 

 strengthening its very long wings; it could not fly, as its feathers 

 near the base were still covered with the scaly sheaths. The nest 

 was built in a niche in the overhanging wall ; the niche was about 18 

 inches long, 18 inches high, and 8 inches deep at the lower part; it 

 was evidently made by a bit of rock being broken out by frost; the 

 bottom of the niche sloped downward. The nest was a semicircle, 

 not much more than a dam to prevent the egg from rolling out; we 

 could not determine what the nest was made of, but considerable 

 mud was used." 



The nest was within 20 feet of Mr. Chapman's face, and within 30 

 feet of the fall, close enough to have the spray blow over it in certain 

 winds. The single black young, clinging to the rock wall and to the 



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