1911] Swarth: Alaska Expedition of 1909. 71 



though the female may be considered as typical of saturatior, the 

 male shows an almost equal intermingling of the characters of 

 cafer and auratus. It has the black malar stripes and nuchal 

 crescent of the latter species, with the red quills of the former. 

 The lower parts have an olivaceous tinge, similar to but not so 

 pronounced as in auratus, while the colors of the head (gray 

 on the occiput and brown on the throat in auratus, and the 

 reverse in cafer), have been modified so that the whole head is 

 an almost uniform brownish gray. 



The nest found at Portage Cove was in a dead stub, some 

 fifty feet from the ground. The stump was so rotten that an 

 attempt to climb it brought down the whole upper portion, 

 including the nest, in a mass of disintegrated punk. In the 

 debris we found five newly hatched young birds and one rotten 

 egg. The young were far too small to give any indication as 

 to the extent to which the varying characters of the parents 

 would be developed. The nest tree was in a valley bordering a 

 stream, in fairly open country, with clumps of scattered timber 

 interspersed between the open meadows. 



The four flickers secured measure as follows : 



Cypseloides niger borealis (Kennerly). Black Swift. 



First seen at the head of Marten Arm, Boca de Quadra. Here 

 during the middle of June the black swift was numerous, large 

 flocks hovering over the meadows in company with Vaux swifts 

 and barn and tree swallows. The swallows fed close to the 

 ground, almost brushing the grass, but the swifts stayed high in 

 the air; and it was only occasionally that an individual would 

 swoop down, affording an opportunity for a hasty, and usually 

 ineffective, shot. Two rainy mornings were devoted almost 

 entirely to an endeavor to secure a series of these birds, and 

 six specimens were obtained. On the following day the weather 

 changed, the sun came out, and the swifts disappeared. 



In life its great size alone readily distinguishes the black 



