FAMILY APODIDAE 235 



white ; lores deep black ; throat and upper foreneck pale gray ; rest of 

 under surface slate to slaty black ; under tail coverts darker ; under 

 side of wings sooty black. 



Immature, under surface including throat duller, browner. 



Measurements. — Males (7 from Bocas del Toro), wing 108.3-112.6 

 (111.1), tail 36.5-40.3 (38.6), oilmen from base 6.4-7.0 (6.7, average 

 of 6), tarsus 11.0-12.6 (11.1, average of 6) mm. 



Females (4 from Bocas del Toro), wing 109.0-113.3 (110.5), tail 

 34.8-39.2 (37.5), oilmen from base 6.1-6.5 (6.2, average of 3), tarsus 

 10.7-11.0 (10.8, average of 3) mm. 



Resident. Locally common in the lowlands of western Bocas del 

 Toro. 



This swift was first recorded in Panama from a pair collected by 

 F. H. Kennard on Western River, near Almirante on February 20, 

 1926. It was taken at Almirante also by Benson August 28, 1927. 

 And in the same year Austin Paul Smith collected male and female at 

 Sibube on the Rio Sixaola, February 10. These 2 are in the Have- 

 meyer collection in the Peabody Museum at Yale. Several in the 

 Princeton Museum of Zoology were taken by H. von Wedel on the 

 lower Rio Cricamola on September 3, 1936, and May 1-7, 1937. 



In February and March 1958, in work around Almirante Bay, I 

 saw small swifts nearly every day, flying beyond gun range above the 

 trees, or circling over cleared areas. Finally I learned that on days of 

 sunshine they came down to drink and touch the water in bathing on a 

 quiet reach of Western River above the mangroves, where the stream 

 passed through open pasturelands. It was here that I secured 6 

 specimens, 1 of them an immature bird, barely grown, taken Febru- 

 ary 28. 



They were found in small flocks, sometimes of 25 or 30 together, 

 that swung swiftly across the sky, not to be distinguished from other 

 species of the genus in flight. Rarely, when they passed low down, 

 they appeared a bit blacker above and grayer on the rump than Vaux's 

 swifts of similar size. 



The nesting of this race has not yet been recorded, but it may be 

 assumed that they use hollow trees, both for this purpose and for 

 roosts. The bird is found on the Caribbean slope of Central America 

 from Nicaragua to Bocas del Toro. 



CHAETURA SPINICAUDA (Temminck) : Band-rumped Swift, 

 Vencejo de Rabadilla Blanquecina 



Cypselus spinicaudus Temminck, Table Meth., Planch. Col., 1839, p. 78. 

 (Cayenne.) 



