184 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



taincms parts of northern Lower California, In all of my travels through our 

 Northwestern States I have failed to see this species excepting at Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon, where it was fairly common near Upper Klamath Lake. Dr. James C. 

 Merrill, United States Army, who also met with this species at the same Post, 

 and with whose observations I fully agree, says: 



"While the flight of Vaux's Swift is usually higher than that of the eastern 

 species and it is generally more difficult to obtain, yet if their habits are closely 

 studied it will be observed that there are times and places where they may be 

 shot without especial difficulty. The height at which they fly depending on that 

 of the insects upon which they feed, they may be most readily secured soon 

 after sunrise; as the day grows warmer and the insects fly higher, they follow 

 them and are soon out of gunshot range for the rest of the day, unless a change 

 in the weather should occur. Had I made a specialty of collecting these Swifts, 

 I could readily have shot several dozen during the season. As observed at Fort 

 Klamath, this bird is not at all crepuscular. The notes differ somewhat from 

 those of Chcehira pelagica, though of the same character, and are less frequently 

 uttered." 1 



Vaux's Swift usually reenters the United States from its winter home in 

 Central America about the middle of April, and goes south again during 

 October. Although portions of California where this Swift is known to be a 

 summer resident have been well settled for some time, it does not appear that it 

 has changed its breeding habits to any extent, like the Chimney Swift has in 

 the East, as it still seems to nest entirely in hollow trees, and it is principally 

 due to this reason that so few of the nests and eggs have yet been taken. 



Mr. A. W. Anthony, in his paper on "Birds of Washington County, Oregon," 

 writes of Vaux's Swift as follows: "Common summer resident; hunts in flocks 

 of fifteen to twenty. A pair were found nesting in a very large stub late in 

 May; the nest, however, was inaccessible. The birds would circle about, fully 

 200 feet above the stub, until directly over the opening; then, darting down 

 like a flash, would disappear with a sharp twitter." 2 



A letter received from Mr. Chase Littlejohn, of Redwood City, California, 

 dated August 8, 1893, says: "I took a pair of Swifts in town, birds I had 

 never seen here until last fall, and from their very strong, smoky odor, there 

 can be little doubt that they were living in some chimney, something they are 

 not known to do." Mr. Littlejohn has since then sent me one of the skins for 

 examination, which proved to be Vaux's Swift, as he surmised, and it is possible 

 that this species is just beginning to resort to chimneys for nesting- purposes. 



Dr. C. T. Cooke writes me from Salem, Oregon, that on May 29, 1891, he 

 discovered one of their roosting and probably also breeding trees in the Wil- 

 lamette Vallev — a large, inaccessible, dead, and hollow cottonwood, which also 

 contained a Wood-duck's nest lower down, but likewise inaccessible. The only 

 eggs of Vaux's Swift I have seen were taken in June, 1874, near Santa Cruz, 



1 The Auk, Vol. V, 1888, pp. 256, 257. 

 * The Auk, Vol. Ill, 1886, pp. 165, 166. 



