The White-throated Swift 
remaining plumage brownish black, paling on forehead, shading on sides of head; a 
whorl of stiffened feathers in front of eye black. Bill black; feet and claws (drying) 
pale brownish. Length about 152.4 (6.00); wing 145 (5.71); tail 57 (2.24); bill 6.2 (.24); 
tarsus 10.3 (.405). 
Recognition Marks. —“Sparrow size,” but larger to appearance; exceedingly 
rapid flight with flashing white underparts and flank-patches, distinctive. 
Nesting. — Nest: A shallow, often formless saucer of feathers glued together 
with saliva and placed at bottom of inaccessible cranny or crevice on cliff. Eggs: 4 or 5 
elongate ovate; pure white. Av. of 12 specimens in M. C. O. coll.: 21.46 x 12.95 (.845 x 
.51); index 60. Season: April-June, varying with locality; one brood. 
General Range. —Western North America. Breeds from south-central British 
Columbia and Alberta south to Lower California and Guatemala, and from the Pacific 
slope east to southwestern South Dakota and western Nebraska; winters from southern 
California southward. 
Distribution in California. —Resident in cliffs of Upper and Lower Sonoran 
life-zones in southern California, foraging to highest altitudes; also breeding locally in 
Sonoran and Transition zones throughout the State, except in the humid coastal district, 
from Santa Cruz northward. Resident on the Santa Barbara Islands. 
Authorities.—Heermann (Panyptila melanoleuca ), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. 
x., 1859, p. 10 (San Fernando Pass and Palm Springs); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, 
vol. ii., 1895, p. 185 \ Bailey, Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 169, figs. (Capistrano; nesting in 
old Mission); Hanna, Condor, vol. xix., 1917, p. 3., figs. (Colton; desc. habits, nests, eggs, 
hibernation). 
SWIFTER than swift is the White-throated Swift. Indeed, swift, 
swifter, swiftest will best express the relations of our western Cypseli, 
where the positive degree is represented by the Vaux Swift, the com¬ 
parative by the Black Cloud Swift, and the superlative by the White- 
throat. No one who is troubled with acrophobia, the fear of high places, 
should attempt to spy upon the nesting haunts of these Swifts, from 
above; for when to the ordinary terrors of a sheer cliff, say a thousand 
feet in height, is added the hurtling passage of resentful Swifts flashing 
about like hurled scimitars, the situation will try the strongest nerve. 
Viewed from below, in the open air, the evolutions of these birds may be re¬ 
garded with some degree of equanimity; but when a Swift dips toward the 
ground, or measures its speed across the face of some frowning precipice, 
one sees what a really frightful velocity is attained. There is no exact 
way of measuring this, but an estimate of five miles per minute would 
be well within the mark, and six not unreasonable. The bird, that is, 
would require only an hour to flit from San Francisco to Santa Barbara; 
or, it might breakfast on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, lunch in 
San Diego, and dine, a trifle late, with Goethals, in Panama. 
In these days of rapid transit it is impossible not to allow the imagi¬ 
nation to dwell for a moment on the implications of this bird’s powers. 
Even at an average pace of four miles a minute, if the bird stays a-wing 
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