176 LIFE BISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIEDS. 



breeding season. They usually arrive from their winter homes in Central Amer- 

 ica during the latter part of April or the beginning of May, and return south 

 again in September. They breed throughout their summer range, and probably 

 only a single brood is raised in a season, as they nest rather late. The only 

 locality where 1 have observed this species was on the upper Columbia River, 

 opposite Lake Chelan, Washington, in July, 1879. Here quite a colony nested 

 in a high perpendicular cliff on the south side of and about a mile back from the 

 river, and numbers of them flew to and from the valley below, where they were 

 feeding. The day was a cloudy one, and a slow, drizzling rain was falling 

 nearly the entire time I was there: this caused the birds to fly low, and they 

 were easily identified. They evidently had young, and the twitterings of the 

 latter could readily be heard as soon as a bird entered one of the numerous 

 crevices in the cliff above. This was utterly inaccessible, being fully 300 feet 

 high and almost perpendicular; and without suitable ropes to lower one from 

 above it was both useless and impracticable to make an attempt to reach the 

 nests. These were evidently placed well back in the fissures, as nothing bearing 

 a resemblance to one was visible from either above or below. In this locality 

 I believe fresh eggs may be looked for about June 25. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam's exploring parties found the Black Swift fairly com- 

 mon in various localities hi Inyo County, California, during June, 1891, and a 

 number of specimens were secured there. Dr. A. K. Fisher, in his Report on 

 the Ornithology of the Death Valley Expedition of 1891, makes the following 

 remarks on this species: "The Black Swift was first observed at Owens Lake, 

 near Keeler, California, where a number were seen flying back and forth over 

 the salt meadows on May 31. On June 2 twenty or more were seen feeding 

 over the same meadows, and five specimens were collected. From the condi- 

 tion of the ovaries of the female secured it was evident that the eggs had been 

 laid. When the flock left the marsh it rose high in the air, and went in the 

 direction of the cliffs in the Inyo Mountains, near Cerro Grordo, where a colony 

 evidently was breeding." * 



Mr. F. Stephens writes me: "Mr. R. B. Herron has taken this species in the 

 San Bernardino Mountains, California, where they appeared to be breeding. 

 They were flying in behind a waterfall that poured over a perpendicular cliff, 

 and he found one drowned in the basin at the foot of the fall." 



Mr. S. F. Rathbun, of Seattle, Washington, informs me that the Black Swift 

 is cpiite abundant at Lake Samish, three miles east of the north end of Lake 

 Washington. The shores of the lake are well settled, but the birds evidently 

 find Samish a good feeding ground. His earliest record of the arrival of this 

 species there is May 15. Mr. Rollo H. Beck, while hunting- near the rocky 

 coast of Monterey County, California, in the summer of 1894, shot a female 

 Black Swift on June 29, containing a nearly developed egg" in the oviduct, 

 which he thinks would have been laid next day and would probably have com- 

 pleted a set. as the remaining eggs were very small. The shell was not formed 



' North American Fauna, No. 7, 1893, p. 54. 



