264 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Subfamily Micropodinae 



TACHORNIS PHOENICOBIA PHOENICOBIA Gosse 

 PALM SWIFT, GOLONBRINA, PETIT HOLLE, JOLLE-JOLLE 



Tachornis phoenicohia Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 1847, p. 58 (Jamaica). 



Hirundo cayenensis, Ritter, Naturh. Reis. Westind. Insel Hayti, 1836, p. 156 

 (listed). 



Cypselus cayennensis ? Saele, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1857, p. 232 (Do- 

 minican Republic). — Bkyant, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 11, May, 1867, 

 p. 95 (Dominican Republic). 



Cypselus phoenicohius, Cosy, Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, 1881, p. 153 (Gantier, 

 Jacmel, specimens) ; Birds Haiti and San Domingo, July, 1884, pp. 87-88, col. 

 fig. (Gantier, Jacmel, Puerto Plata, La Vega, specimens) ; Cat. West Indian 

 Birds, 1892, p. 106 (Haiti, Dominican Republic). — Tippenhatjer, Die Insel 

 Haiti, 1892. 322 (listed).— Verrill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1909. 

 p. 360 (La Vega). 



Tachornis phoenicohia, Lonnberg, Fauna och Flora, 1929, p. 103 (Haiti). 



Tachornis phoenicobia phoenicohia, Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 61, 

 1917, p. 414 (Sosua, specimens). — Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 

 vol. 80, 1928, p. 503 (Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Fond Parisien, Ennery, St. 

 Michel). — Danforth. Auk, 1929, p. 36S (locally common). — Moltoni, Att.' Soc. 

 Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 68, 1929, p. 318 (Moca, San Juan, specimens). 



Resident in the lowlands; locally common. 



The newly arrived naturalist in Hispaniola, eagerly alert to the 

 kaleidoscopic impressions of a new environment that crowd his days, 

 may have as one of his early experiences a glimpse of a little, gray, 

 narrow-winged form that comes skittering overhead in the blazing 

 sun, sliding from side to side in the air with a twinkle of wings and 

 a flash of white so rapidly that it is gone among the palms before 

 the mind has had time to consider whether it be giant moth or bird. 

 Seconds after it has passed it is realized that the first of the palm 

 swifts of the island has been in view. The narrow wings move so 

 rapidly about the body as to appear often as a blur, while the bird 

 travels so swiftly that it may require several meetings before there 

 is clear perception of its colors and form. 



The palm swift is confined mainly to the lower country but finds 

 congenial haunts over the suburbs of towns and cities so that it is 

 not difficult to see. (PL 21.) Salle recorded it from the Dominican 

 Republic saying that it appeared in numbers high in the air after 

 rains. Cory secured specimens at Puero Plata, November 23, 1882, 

 and La Vega August 8, 1883. Verrill reported palm swifts as com- 

 mon along the Rio Camii near La Vega and Peters found them fairly 

 common near Sosua, securing three as specimens. He saw them 

 flying into the dead fronds of palms to rest. Abbott secured a 

 female at Lake Enriquillo, October 5, 1919. In Santo Domingo City, 

 on May 2, 1927, in passing through a suburban street Wetmore ? s 



