THE BLACK SWIFT. 175 



Family MICROPODID^E. Swifts. 

 62. Cypseloides niger (Gmelin). 



BLACK SWIFT. 



Kir undo nigra Gmelin, Systema Naturae, I, ii, 17S8, 1025. 

 Cypseloides niger Sclater, Proceedings Zoological Society, Juue 27, 1865, 615. 

 (B 108, C 270, B 350, 404, U 422.) 



Geographical range : Mountains of western North America, mainly on the Pacific 

 coast; north to British Columbia,; east to eastern Washington, Nevada, and Colorado; 

 south to California; and in winter, through Lower California and Mexico to Costa Bica, 

 Central America (and the West India Islands!). 1 



The range of the Black Swift, also known as "Cloud Swift," is still rather 

 imperfectly defined. As far as yet known it has only been observed in the 

 Rocky Mountain region in Colorado, 'where it seems to be mainly confined to 

 San Juan County, in the southwestern part of the State. Mr. A. W. Anthony 

 writes me: "Here I found the Black Swift very abundant in the summer of 

 1883, nesting in all of the highest crags, but never in places accessible to any- 

 thing not provided with wings. About Silverton, Colorado, a large colony had 

 taken possession of a very high cliff, making their appearance about June 20; 

 during most of the day they coidd be seen cruising about over the valley at a 

 height of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, but toward evening or at the approach of 

 a shower they descended frequently to within 100 feet of the ground At such 

 times an occasional shot was to be had at some unwary straggler, and a series 

 of about twenty was taken between June 25 and July 10. Females shot 

 between July 5 and 10 contained ova nearly ready to deposit." 



Dr. A. K. Fisher tells me that he saw a number of these birds about the cliffs 

 near Trinidad, in Las Animas County, Colorado, about the middle of July, 1892. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway met with it in Nevada, where several hundred were 

 observed one morning hovering over the Carson River, below Fort Churchill, 

 and he also found the remains of one on the Truckee River, near Pyramid Lake. 2 



The Black Swift undoubtedly occurs also in suitable localities in the inter- 

 vening regions, the mountains of Utah, for instance. Throughout the Sierra 

 Nevadas, the Cascade Mountains, and the coast ranges of California, Oregon, 

 Washington, and British Columbia, it appears to be more generally distributed 

 than in the more eastern portions of its range, and wherever high perpendicular 

 cliffs are found one may reasonably hope to meet with flocks of this large Swift. 

 They are extremely social birds, and are rarely seen singly even during the 



1 Although the West Indian Swift, the type of Cypseloides niger, is, according to the American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union check list, considered identical with our bird, I believe the larger size of the latter, especially 

 the marked difference in the length of the wing and its somewhat paler coloration, is sufficient reason for 

 separating the two, as had been done by Dr. Elliott Coues, and more recently by Mr. Ernest Hartert, in 

 vol. 16, pp. 494, 495, Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum. I find the average wing measurements of 

 the nine West Indian specimens to which I had access to be 6.09 inches, while that of fifteen North Amer- 

 ican skins is 6 55 inches, and I consider it well entitled to subspecific rank. 



-History of North American Birds, Vol. II, 1874, p. 430. 



