BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 707 
[Cypseloides] niger SctateR and Savin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 95 (Jamaica).— 
SHarpe, Hand-list, ii, 1900, 93, part. 
C[ypseloides] niger Newton, Handb. Jamaica, 1881, 108. 
Clypseloides] niger (typicus) Harter, Das Tierreich, Podarg., Caprim., Macropt., 
1897, 79, part. 
[Nephecetes niger var. borealis] a. niger CovEs, Birds Northwest, 1874, 268, 
footnote, part (synonymy). 
Cypseloides niger jamaicensis Ripaway, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., xxiii, Apr. 19, 
1910, 53 (Mayfield, St. Andrews, Jamaica; coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.). 
NEPHCETES NIGER BOREALIS (Kennerly). 
NORTHERN BLACK SWIFT. 
Adult male probably similar to that of NV. n. niger (from Cuba),* but 
larger; adult female similar to that of N. n. jamaicensis, but with 
feathers of abdomen and under tail-coverts much more distinctly 
tipped with white, these white tips often extending over whole of 
under parts posterior to chest.? 
aJ have not been able to examine an adult male of N. n. niger from the type 
locality (Santo Domingo). 
b Supposed changes of plumage in this subspecies according to age are thus de- 
scribed by Mr. Frank M. Drew, in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vii, 1882, 182, 183: 
‘An examination of ten birds of this species, taken at Howardsville, Colorado, in 
1880 and 1881, leads me to believe that four years are necessary for them to acquire 
their complete plumage. A young male of the year, taken September 17, was marked 
as follows. General color dull black, every feather tipped with white, scarcely 
appreciable on upper back and throat, broader on upper tail coverts and rump. 
Crissum almost pure white. In birds of the second year the general plumage has a 
brownish cast; feathers of back tipped with brown, the head whitish, belly feathers 
yet broadly tipped with white. The third year the color is black, with a very faint 
edging of white on under tail coverts. In the fourth year pure black, forehead hoary, 
neck with a brownish wash. Feathers bordering the black loral crescent whitish.’ 
Mr. Drew is undoubtedly mistaken, however, in assuming that the sexes are alike 
in coloration, for all the sexed specimens examined by me, from whatever locality, 
show that all those with white-tipped feathers on posterior under parts are females 
and all those without these white-tipped feathers are males. This is true of all the 
subspecies, except that in the West Indian forms these white tips are much less 
distinct, sometimes nearly obsolete. 
