The Vaux Swift 
and may the best man win. Stories attributed to Mr. Herron, of San 
Bernardino, tell of Black Swifts seen passing behind a certain waterfall 
on Mill Creek east of Redlands; and of a cave near the Warner Ranch 
where they are supposed to breed. I have myself seen these swifts 
“under suspicious circumstances” haunting Nevada Falls in the Yosemite. 
This well known cataract is only 700 feet in height, but I renounce title 
to all the Black Swifts’ eggs which may have accumulated behind it. 
Swifts have been seen, in season, in the Kearsarge Pass, above Inde¬ 
pendence; and a single bird in Mammoth Pass. Besides this—now this 
is an honest-to-goodness tip—I have seen Black Swifts in numbers 
playing about the cliffs of the Point-of-the-Arches group, on the west 
coast of Washington. They undoubtedly breed there. 
No. 189 
Vaux’s Swift 
A. O. U. No. 424. Chaetura vauxi (Townsend). 
Description. — Adults: Above sooty brown, lightening (nearly hair-brown) on 
rump and upper tail-coverts; below light sooty gray, lightening (nearly white) on chin 
and throat; lores velvety black; shafts of tail-feathers denuded at tips a third of an inch. 
Length about 114.3 (4.50); wing 112 (4.41); tail 36.5 (1.44); bill 5.2 (.20); tarsus 10.9 
(-43)- 
Recognition Marks. —Strictly “pygmy size,” but comparison misleading—to 
appearance swallow size; rapid, erratic flight, and bow-and-arrow-shaped position in 
flight, distinctive. Although this species is only half the size of the preceding, careful 
discrimination is necessary while the birds are a-wing. 
Nesting. — Nest: A small bracket of fine dead twigs or fir needles, held together 
by hardened saliva, and placed against inside wall of hollow redwood tree, near bottom, 
or else in hollow under a stump. Eggs: 4 to 6; elliptical ovate; white. Av. of 26 speci¬ 
mens from Humboldt County in M. C. O. coll.: 18.3 x 11.8 (.72 x .465); index 64.6. 
Season: June; one brood. 
General Range. —Breeding in the Pacific Coast district from Santa Cruz, Cali¬ 
fornia, to southern Alaska; casually (?) eastward through the Cascade Mountains and 
into the Sierras; east in migrations to Montana, western Nevada, and Arizona; south in 
winter to Lower California, Mexico, and Central America. 
Distribution in California. —Common migrant practically throughout the 
State. Resident in summer in the Redwood forests of the humid coastal belt, from 
Santa Cruz northward. May breed sparingly in the Sierras (Kenawyers, South Fork 
of Kings River, July 9, 1913). 
Migrations. — Spring: Apr. 16— May23. San Diego, Apr. 16, 1885; Cazadero 
Redwoods, Apr. 21, 1911; Shandon, Apr. 19, 1912; Los Olivos to Santa Barbara, 
Apr. 26, 1912, “the dominant bird”; Potholes, Apr. 29, 1910; Fresno, May 20, 1903; 
Olancha, May 23, 1891; Vallevista, Apr. 29, 1908. Fall: Aug. 4-Oct. 14 (both Los 
Angeles, 1899, by H. S. Swarth); Santa Barbara, Sept. 4, 1911; Oct. 5, 1912; Sept. 
11-18, 1915. 
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