430 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



In the month of June they came every day towards noon, whenever it 

 threatened to rain, and sometimes returned again after sunset. When tired 

 of their exercise they always flew together towards the mountains, where he 

 had no doubt their breeding-places existed. He states that when one of 

 these birds flies in chase of another, it emits a soft continued note, not 

 unlike a song. Having taken many young birds in the month of June, he 

 supposes that these Swifts breed in April and May. 



It is stated by Sumichrast to have been occasionally met with in the table- 

 lands of Mexico, and that it is resident and breeds within the State of Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico. 



A single specimen of this bird was known to Gosse to have been taken 

 near Spanishtown in Jamaica, in 1843, in company with many others. Mr. 

 March, in his paper on the birds of this island, gives a similar account of 

 the habits of this species to tliat of Dr. Gundlach. He states that it was 

 rarely seen except at early dawn, or in dull and cloudy weather, or after 

 rain in an afternoon. He has sometimes procured specimens from Health- 

 shire and the St. Catharine Hills. The only place known to him as their 

 actual resort is a cave in the lower St. Catharine HiUs, near the ferry, 

 where they harbor in the narrow deep galleries and fissures of the limestone 

 rocks. 



Mr. J. K. Lord cites this species as among the earliest of the spring vis- 

 itors seen by him in British Columbia. On a foggy morning early in June, 

 the insects being low, these birds were hovering close to the ground, and he 

 obtained four specimens. He saw no more until the fall of the year, when 

 they again made their appearance in large numbers, among the many other 

 birds of that season. He again saw this Swift at Fort Colville. 



Captain Prevost, E. N., obtained a single specimen of this bird on Van- 

 couver Island, which Mr. Sclater compared with Gosse's Cypselus niger, 

 from Jamaica. He, however, is not satisfied as to their identity, and is 

 inclined to regard the two birds as distinct. 



According to Captain Feilner, this species breeds in the middle of June, 

 on high rocks on the Klamath River, about eight miles above Judah's 

 Cave. 



The Black Swift was seen by Mr. Ridgway, during his western tour, only 

 once, when, about the middle of June, an assembly of several hundreds 

 was observed early one morning hovering over the Carson River, below 

 Fort Churchill, in Nevada. In the immediate vicinity was an immense 

 rocky cliff, where he supposed they nested. In their flight they much re- 

 sembled Chimney-Swallows {Chcetitra), only they appeared much larger. 

 They were perfectly silent. On the Truckee River, near Pyramid Lake, 

 in May of the same year, he found the remains of one which had been 

 killed by a hawk, but the species was not seen there alive. 



