NORTHERN BLACK SWIFT 261 



under his mother's breast. Not an audible sound was uttered during the meal, 

 but just before the parent bird departed she uttered two sharp, squeal-like 

 notes ; and then three more as she tumbled backward into space to speed off 

 down the canyon. The young bird stretched and preened and once more 

 settled down. * * * i believe that the female takes upon herself all the 

 duties of incubation and of the feeding of the young. 



Miss Smith's (1928) observations at Berry Creek Falls corroborated 

 Mr. Michael's statement that the young birds can, and do, go long 

 hours v\'ithout food. She writes : 



On each visit my chief interest was in finding out how often and when the 

 young birds were fed. Unfortunately, I was not able to spend a whole day 

 with the swifts uutil August 2.5, and then the youngest bird was more than two 

 weeks old. I had not seen Primus (so named because he was first discovered) 

 fed during my four previous visits with him. I had, however, seen Secundus 

 fed at about four o'clock in the afternoon, and again the next morning at half 

 past nine. I suppose being a very young bird he was fed more than once on 

 each of these two days. But August 25 they all were fed only at nightfall. 

 That day my sister and I managed to cover the four and one half miles from 

 camp to the falls before a quarter past five o'clock in the morning. As we 

 approached we heard soft, low cheeping notes, and then in the dim light saw 

 birds circling and darting about in the small amphitheatre in front of the falls. 

 It was impossible for the eye to follow them or count them, they flew so swiftly 

 and the light was so faint. One could be seen chasing another, and then we 

 could see several fluttering up the clif£ and disappearing behind a log, and 

 almost immediately half a dozen swept by us. By half past five, before it was 

 light enough to see clearly, every bird had left. From then until sunset not 

 one of the swifts returned. 



Just before sunset Primus backed out of his nest, and clinging to the threshold 

 of the niche, exercised his long wings. Seven times he vibrated them, with 

 short intervals of rest during which his wonderful wings were stretched wide 

 against the rock. Suddenly, a swift, surprisingly light gray in color, "plastered" 

 itself against the wall below Primus, and motionless watched us for fifteen 

 minutes. Primus, seeing no reason for concern about us, scrambled back onto 

 the nest and waited patiently for his meal. Finally the old bird fluttered up 

 and for two minutes in the fading light we could see it feeding the young one 

 by regurgitation. Then the other parent arrived, darker and seemingly larger, 

 and immediately we guessed it was the mother. She fed the young bird for 

 four minutes with only very short pauses, while the father looked on. 



Mr. Dixon (1935) says of the young swift that he observed iu 

 Sequoia National Park: "The outstanding feature of the young 

 swift was his aversion to light. He always turned around in the 

 nest so as to face the darkest corner. Another feature was the ease 

 and tenacity with which he clung to the nest with his sharp, strongly- 

 curved claws. When placed against a vertical granite cliff, he had no 

 trouble clinging by one foot, but tucked his head down to avoid 

 the bright light." 



Plumages. — Mr. Dixon (1935) says that a recently hatched cliick 

 was "bluish black in color. Its eyes were closed, and there was not 

 a bit of natal down on its body." An older young bird, found dead 



