44 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
CHAETURA VAUXI OCHROPYGIA Aldrich: Vaux’s Swift, 
Vencejo Oscuro Comin 
Chaetura vauxi ochropygia AtpricH, Sci. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., 
vol. 7, Aug. 31, 1937, p. 68. (Paracoté, 1 mile south of the mouth of the 
Rio Angulo, Montijo Bay, Veraguas, Panama.) 
These small swifts were seen constantly over the open pastures and 
around the groves of coconut palms, usually in groups of a dozen or 
more. They ranged over the entire island, as I saw them also flying 
high over the unbroken forest. Hundreds of them were present on 
Coiba. February 4 I recorded many along the shores of Isla Rancheria. 
Fic. 4.—Vaux’s Swift, Vencejo Oscuro Comin. 
While on many occasions they flew high in air, near the shores 
and over the pastures they circled lower, sometimes quartering like 
swallows barely above the ground. From the regularity with which 
small groups flew around the coconut palms after the sun had set I 
had the impression that they sought roosting places in these trees, 
but this I was not able to ascertain with certainty. Sometimes as they 
passed I heard low, wheezy, chattering calls that had little volume or 
carrying power, but ordinarily the only impression of them was of 
their angular wings, beating rapidly as they passed at high speed. 
