The Northern Black Swift 
No. 188 
Northern Black Swift 
A. O. U. No. 422. Nephoecetes niger borealis (Kennerly). 
Synonyms.— Cloud Swift. Northern Black Cloud Swift. 
Description.— Adult male: Plumage sooty black, changing to dull glossy blue- 
black on exposed quills and on tail, paling to sooty brown on head and breast; forehead, 
especially on sides, lightly tipped with pale grayish brown; a velvety patch of black 
feathers in front of eye; feathers defining edge of wing faintly edged with grayish brown; 
tail notched for eight or nine millimeters. Bill and claws black; feet and legs paler. 
Adult female: Like male, but feathers of belly and crissum more or less edged with 
white; marginal row of feathers on wing-lining narrowly edged with white or pale gray¬ 
ish; tail scarcely emarginate. Length about 165.1 (6.50); wing 165 (6.496); tail 61 
(2.40); bill 6.8 (.27); tarsus 12.9 (.51). Female has tail a trifle shorter. 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size, but appearing larger; long wings and rapid 
flight with solid black color and size distinctive. 
Nesting.— Nest: None, or, rarely, a simple coil of grasses. Egg: Single; pure 
white; placed on floor of shelf or cranny of sea-cliff or mountain precipice. Av. of 9 
eggs: 28.8 x 19 (i.i3x.75);index 66. Season: J une 20-J uly 10; one brood. 
Range of Nephoecetes niger. —Western North America, the West Indies, and 
northern South America. 
Range of N. n. borealis. —Western North America. Breeds in the mountains and 
on the sea-cliffs from southern Alaska south to central Mexico, and from the extreme 
Pacific Coast east to Colorado. Winters south to Guatemala and Honduras. 
Distribution in California. —Of general distribution throughout the State, but 
rarely' observed. Known as a summer resident and breeder only from the Monterey' 
and Santa Cruz coasts. LTndoubtedlv breeds elsewhere in the higher mountains (Lone 
Pine, June 16, 1911; San Jacinto Mountains, June 7, 1913; Kearsarge Pass, July 4, 1913; 
Yosemite, near Nevada Falls, June 16, 1914; Bishop, May 29, 1919; Mammoth Lakes, 
June 20, 1921). 
Authorities. — Baird, Brewer and Ridgway ( Nephoecetes niger), Hist. N. Am. 
Birds, vol. iii.. 1874, p. 521 (San Francisco); Lucas, Auk, vol. x., 1893, p. 365 (osteology); 
Bendire , Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 175; Vrooman, Auk, vol. xviii., 1901, 
p. 394; ibid., Condor, vol. vii., 1905, p. 176 (Santa Cruz; desc. nest and eggs); Dawson, 
Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 8, figs. (Santa Cruz, breeding habits). 
IT MAY be confessed that the palmy days of bird-nesting as a 
sport are over. Those who still have at heart the interest of oology as 
a science are not loth to make this admission. Sport in the older sense 
of the term has ever meant destruction, while science stands or should 
stand for conservation. A kindlier spirit toward the things of nature 
is manifesting itself on every hand—a determination to foster and to 
protect, instead of to destroy. The life of a bird is undoubtedly more 
important to humanity than its caloric content, and the psychology of a 
living bird is more fascinating than either its plumage or its egg. 
The substance of this article has already appeared in “ The Condor," to which grateful acknowledgment is made. 
971 
