The Northern Black Swift 
K3E-. 
Taken in Fresno County Photo by the Author 
“A GIANT BULWARK OF THE HIGH SIERRAS" 
TEHIPITE DOME, UNDOUBTEDLY A LANDMARK FOR THE CLOUD SWIFTS 
and the boatman caught the gleam of a beady eye, or else cringed in 
involuntary terror, as the bird swept over him with the impersonal 
disregard of a thunderbolt. Sultry days, we used to fancy, drove them 
low, but even as we gazed and speculated, seeking what manner of meat 
they fed on, they were gone again, vanished in a trice behind the clouds. 
There seemed to be no law about their comings and goings, even in the 
summer season, when all proper fowls are found in the vicinity of their 
nests. These birds could not nest on lakes or plains. Indeed, I still 
believe that Black Swifts hunt in flocks at all seasons, and that they 
enjoy a daily range of hundreds of miles in quest of food. 
Our meager knowledge of the nesting of the Black Cloud Swift has 
been painfully acquired. In the year 1888 an ardent amateur, whose 
name it would be a pity to perpetuate in this connection, but a member 
of a once flourishing organization known as the “Young Naturalists,” 
found a bulky nest containing five white eggs in a warehouse on the 
Seattle water-front, and reported it with due pomp and circumstantiality 
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