Ato THE BLACK SWIFT. — 
No. 159. 
BLACK SWIFT. 
A. O. U. No. 422. Cypseloides niger borealis (Kennerly). 
Synonyms.—C1Loup Swirt. NorrHern BLack CLoup Swift. 
Description—4dults: Sooty black; feathers of extreme chin, anterior por- 
tion of lores, forecrown, lining of wings, abdomen, sides, crissum, and under tail- 
coverts, narrowly skirted with white. Bill, feet, and eyes black. Length about 
7.00 (177.8) ; wing 6.50 (165.1) ; tail 2.09 (53). 
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size but appearing larger; long wings and 
rapid flight, cloud-haunting habits with color and size distinctive. 
Nesting.—Vest: in crannies of cliffs; reported by Bendire from the breaks 
of the Columbia in Douglas County. Eggs: unknown. Season: presumably 
June. 
General Range.—Western North America from the Rocky Mountains to 
the Pacific, north thru British Columbia to southwestern Alaska; partially 
nomadic, erratic, and far-ranging; winters south to Central America. 
Range in Washington.—Summer resident in the higher Cascades and (pre- 
sumably) the Olympics; appears sporadically at lower levels, chiefly west of 
the Cascade Mountains. 
Migrations.—S pring: Seattle, May 16, 1905. Fall: Seattle, September 
20, 1907; October 7, 1905; Tatoosh Island, June 4, 1907. 
Authorities.—Cypseloides borealis, Kennerly, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. IX., 
Nov. 1857, 202; fide Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, p. 143. Rh. D". Ra. 
B. E 
Specimens.—Proy. C. E. 
NO other bird of equal prominence in the North American ornis has 
so successfully eluded the investigation of the curious. Of equal prom- 
inence, I say, for on occasion the birds do exhibit themselves at close 
quarters with every appearance of frankness. And it is precisely because 
they do occasionally stoop to our level, that we long to follow them as 
they sweep the clouds or hasten back at a thought to their mountain 
fastnesses. 
Cloud Swifts hunt in great straggling companies, and when one of 
them has attracted attention by swooping near the ground, and the eyes 
are lifted, a dozen others may be noted in the neighborhood, and a hun- 
dred more in the sky, up, up to the limit of vision. Certain atmospheric 
conditions, especially a drizzling rain, may impel the whole company to 
seek the lower levels, and hundreds may be seen at once hawking over 
the townsite, or, better vet, over the surface of a lake, as Whatcom, or 
