310 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A. J. Campbell (1901) states that he has only two records of this 

 species perching; one a case of an apparently over-fatigued bird, 

 which settled for a moment on the ground; the other, by Dr. W. 

 Macgillivray, who reports a passage of thousands of these birds at 

 Portland on February 14, 1899; he was informed that a flock took 

 up their quarters for the night in a large gum tree, where their con- 

 stant twittering could be heard till quite dark. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — ^In the North Pacific : Kurile Islands, Hokkaido, 

 Seven Islands of Izu, Quelpart Island, Tanegashima, Yakushima, 

 Tokuroshima, Loochoo (Riu-kiu) Isles, Botel Tobago, Sakhalin, and 

 Formosa. 



On the Asiatic mainland: Kamchatka, east Siberia west to the 

 Altai, Manchuria, Mongolia, Korea, China, Kansu, and Tibet. Re- 

 placed in Burma by M. p. cooki and in the northwest Himalayas by 

 M. p. leuGonyx. 



Migration range. — Southeastern Asiatic mainland, passing through 

 India and Malay Peninsula, through the Malay Archipelago, Papua, 

 etc., to Australia generally and occasionally also Tasmania. 



Egg dates. — China, 8 nests with 1 to 3 eggs between June 6 and 

 11 (Weihai-Wei). 



Japan, June and July; June 19 (Hondo, Kobayashi). 



Siberia, fresh clutches in Dauria June 14 (Dybowski), also July 

 17; also Makutsk, June 19. 



AERONAUTES SAXATALIS SAXATALIS (Woodhonse) 

 WHITE-THROATED SWIFT 



Plates 47, 48 



HABrrs 



In the mountainous regions of the far west, especially where pre- 

 cipitous, rocky cliffs tower above deep canyons, one may catch a 

 glimpse of these little winged meteors darting about far overhead. 

 It was in the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona where I first saw this 

 marvelous swift; a mountain brook flows swiftly over its rocky bed 

 through a steep and narrow canyon, known as "the box," so narrow 

 that in some places one can almost touch both sides of it at once; 

 on each side the rocky cliffs rise to a height of 100 or 200 feet, almost 

 shutting out the light of day; and far above us we could see these 

 swifts darting in and out of crevices in the rocks, or cleaving the sky 

 in their rapid gyrations. Swifts are well named, for, in proportion 

 to their size, they are the swiftest birds that fly, and this species is 



