CYPSELID^ — THE SWIFTS. 429 



Nephoecetes niger, Baird. 



BLACK SWIFT. 



1 Hirundo niger, Gmel. S. N. I, 1788, 1025. Cypselus niger, GcssE, B. Jam. 1847, 63. — ■ 

 Ib. lllust. B. Jam. pi. x. — Gundl. & Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. VI, 1858, 268. — Scl. 

 P. Z. S. 1865, 615. Nephoecetes niger, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 142. —Elliot, 

 lllust. Birds N. Am. I, xx. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 349. Cypselus horealis, 

 Kennerly, p. a. N. S. Philad. IX, Nov. 1857, 202. —Scl. P. Z. S. 1865, 615. 

 Hirundo apus dominicensis, Brisson, II, 1760, 514, pi. xlvi, f. 3. 



Sp. Char. Wing the length of the body. General color rather lustrous dark sooty- 

 brown, with a greenish gloss, becoming a very little lighter on the breast anteriorly 

 below, but rather more so on the neck and head above. The feathers on top of the head 

 edged with light gray, which forms a continuous wash on each side of the forehead 

 above, and anterior to the usual black crescent in front of the eye. Occasionally some 

 feathers of the under parts behind are narrowly edged with graj^ Bill and feet black. 

 Length, 6.75 ; wing, 6.75 ; tail, 3.00, the depth of its fork about .45 in the male, and 

 scarcely .15 in the female. 



Hab. Washington Territory, Oregon, Nevada, and Orizaba (var. horealis') ; Cuba and 

 Jamaica (var. niger)^ breeds. Vera Cruz ; breeds (Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 562). 



The tail is considerably more forked in the male than in the female, in 

 which it is sometimes nearly even, and in the males its depth varies con- 

 siderably. 



Jamaican specimens (var. niger) are rather smaller, considerably blacker, 

 and seem to have narrower tail-feathers, even when the other dimensions are 

 about equal. 



Whether the Puget Sound bird visits the West Indies is not known ; but 

 the difference in size and colors between them and the West Indian birds 

 would seem to indicate that they select a more directly southern region. 

 The fact that the Orizaba specimen is most like the Northwest Coast birds 

 favors this latter supposition. 



Habits. This Swift is of irregular and local occurrence in the West 

 Indies and in Western North America. Specimens were obtained at Simi- 

 ahmoo Bay, Washington Territor}^ by Dr. Kennerly, in July, 1857. Dr. 

 Cooper saw a black Swift, which he thinks may have been this species, in 

 Pah-Ute Canon, west of Fort Mohave, May 29, 1861, and again at Santa 

 Barbara, May, 1863. 



Dr. Gundlach, in his ornithological explorations in Cuba, in 1858, met 

 w^th this species among the mountains between Cienfuegos and Trinidad, on 

 the southern coast of that island, and also in the eastern parts of the Sierra 

 Maestra. He saw these birds for the first time in the month of May, near 

 Bayamo, where they commonly arrived every morning about one hour after 

 sunrise, and Hew in a circular direction over the river at a considerable 

 height, making their evolutions always in the same place, apparently em- 

 ployed in catching the insects attracted by the proximity of the river. 



