A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2

Family CYPSELIDÆ.—The Swifts

Char. Bill very small, without notch, triangular, much broader than high; the culmen not one sixth the gape. Anterior toes cleft to the base, each with three joints, (in the typical species,) and covered with skin or feathers; the middle claw without any serrations; the lateral toes nearly equal to the middle. Bill without bristles, but with minute feathers extending along the under margin of the nostrils. Tail-feathers ten. Nostrils elongated, superior, and very close together. Plumage compact. Primaries ten, elongated, falcate.

The Cypselidæ, or Swifts, are Swallow-like birds, generally of rather dull plumage and medium size. They were formerly associated with the true Swallows on account of their small, deeply cleft bill, wide gape, short feet, and long wings, but are very different in all the essentials of structure, belonging, indeed, to a different order or suborder. The bill is much smaller and shorter; the edges greatly inflected; the nostrils superior, instead of lateral, and without bristles. The wing is more falcate, with ten primaries instead of nine. The tail has ten feathers instead of twelve. The feet are weaker, without distinct scutellæ; the hind toe is more or less versatile, the anterior toes frequently lack the normal number of joints, and there are other features which clearly justify the wide separation here given, especially the difference in the vocal organs. Strange as the statement may be, their nearest relatives are the Trochilidæ, or Humming-Birds, notwithstanding the bills of the two are as opposite in shape as can readily be conceived. The sternum of the Cypselidæ is also very different from that of the Hirundinidæ, as will be shown by the accompanying figure. There are no emarginations or openings in the posterior edge, which is regularly curved. The keel rises high, for the attachment of the powerful pectoral muscles. The manubrium is almost entirely wanting.

Chætura pelagica.

Progne subis.

In this family, as in the Caprimulgidæ, we find deviations in certain forms from the normal number of phalanges to the toes, which serve to divide it into two sections. In one, the Chæturinæ, these are 2, 3, 4, and 5, as usual; but in the Cypselinæ they are 2, 3, 3, and 3, as shown in the accompanying cut borrowed from Dr. Sclater’s masterly memoir on the Cypselidæ, (Pr. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865, 593), which also serves as the basis of the arrangement here presented.

Left foot of Chætura zonaris.

Left foot of Panyptila melanoleuca.

Cypselinæ. Tarsi feathered; phalanges of the middle and outer toes three each (instead of four and five). Hind toe directed either forward or to one side, not backward.

Tarsi feathered; toes bare; hind toe directed forward … Cypselus.

Both tarsi and toes feathered; hind toe lateral … Panyptila.

Chæturinæ. Tarsi bare; phalanges of toes normal (four in middle toe, five in outer). Hind toe directed backwards, though sometimes versatile.

Tarsi longer than middle toe.

Tail-feathers spinous.

Shafts of tail-feathers projecting beyond the plumage … Chætura.

Shafts not projecting, (Nephæcetes) … Cypseloides.

Tail-feathers not spinous … Collocallia.

Tarsi shorter than middle toe … Dendrochelidon.

The Swifts are cosmopolite, occurring throughout the globe. All the genera enumerated above are well represented in the New World, except the last two, which are exclusively East Indian and Polynesian. Species of Collocallia make the “edible bird’s-nests” which are so much sought after in China and Japan. These are constructed entirely out of the hardened saliva of the bird, although formerly supposed to be made of some kind of sea-weed. All the Cypselidæ have the salivary glands highly developed, and use the secretion to cement together the twigs or other substances of which the nest is constructed, as well as to attach this to its support. The eggs are always white.

There are many interesting peculiarities connected with the modification of the Cypselidæ, some of which may be briefly adverted to. Those of our common Chimney Swallow will be referred to in the proper place. Panyptila sancti-hieronymæ of Guatemala attaches a tube some feet in length to the under side of an overhanging rock, constructed of the pappus or seed-down of plants, caught flying in the air. Entrance to this is from below, and the eggs are laid on a kind of shelf near the top. Chætura poliura of Brazil again makes a very similar tube-nest (more contracted below) out of the seeds of Trixis divaricata, suspends it to a horizontal branch, and covers the outside with feathers of various colors. As there is no shelf to receive the eggs, it is believed that these are cemented against the sides of the tube, and brooded on by the bird while in an upright position. Dendrochelidon klecho, of Java, etc., builds a narrow flat platform on a horizontal branch, of feathers, moss, etc., cemented together, and lays in it a single egg. The nest is so small that the bird sits on the branch and covers the egg with the end of her belly.

Owing to the almost incredible rapidity in flight of the Swifts, and the great height in the air at which they usually keep themselves, the North American species are, of all our land birds, the most difficult to procure, only flying sufficiently near the surface of the ground to be reached by a gun in damp weather, and then requiring great skill to shoot them. Their nests, too, are generally situated in inaccessible places, usually high perpendicular or overhanging mountain-cliffs. Although our four species are sufficiently abundant, and are frequently seen in flocks of thousands, it is only the common Chimney Swift that is to be met with at all regularly in museums.

Subfamily CYPSELINÆ

The essential character of this subfamily, as stated already, is to be found in the feathered tarsus; the reduction of the normal number of phalanges in the middle toe from 4 to 3, and of the outer toe from 5 to 3, as well as in the anterior or lateral position of the hind toe, not posterior. Of the two genera assigned to it by Dr. Sclater, one, Cypselus, is enlarged by him so as to include the small West Indian Palm Swifts, Tachornis of Gosse.

Genus PANYPTILA, Cabanis

Panyptila, Cabanis, Wiegm. Archiv, 1847, I, 345.—Burmeister, Thiere Bras. Vögel, I, 1856, 368. (Type, Hirundo cayanensis, Gm.)

Pseudoprocne, Streubel, Isis, 1848, 357. (Same type.)

Panyptila melanoleuca.

6018 ♂

Gen. Char. Tail half as long as the wings, moderately forked; the feathers rather lanceolate, rounded at tip, the shafts stiffened, but not projecting. First primary shorter than the second. Tarsi, toes, and claws very thick and stout; the former shorter than the middle toe and claw, which is rather longer than the lateral one; middle claw longer than its digit. Hind toe very short; half versatile, or inserted on the side of the tarsus. Tarsi and toes feathered to the claws, except on the under surfaces.

Three species of this genus are described by authors, all of them black, with white throat, and a patch of the same on each side of rump, and otherwise varied with this color. The type P. cayanensis is much the smallest (4.70), and has the tail more deeply forked than P. melanoleuca.

Synopsis of Species

P. cayanensis. Glossy intense black; a supraloral spot of white; white of throat transversely defined posteriorly. Tail deeply forked, the lateral feathers excessively attenuated and acute.

Wing, 4.80; middle tail-feather, 1.20, external, 2.30. Hab. Cayenne and Brazil … var. cayanensis.¹⁰⁸

Wing, 7.30; middle tail-feather, 1.90, external, 3.60. Hab. Guatemala … var. sancti-hieronymi.¹⁰⁹

P. melanoleuca. Lustreless dull black; no supraloral white spot, but instead a hoary wash; white of throat extending back along middle of abdomen to the vent. Tail moderately forked, the lateral feathers obtuse. Wing, 5.75; middle tail-feather, 2.30, outer, 2.85. Hab. Middle Province of United States, south to Guatemala.

 

Panyptila melanoleuca, Baird

WHITE-THROATED SWIFT

Cypselus melanoleucus, Baird, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VII, June, 1854, 118 (San Francisco Mountains, N. M.).—Cassin, Illust. I, 1855, 248. Panyptila melanoleuca, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 141, pl. xviii, f. 1.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 125 (Guatemala).—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1865, 607.—Kennerly, P. R. R. X, b, 36, pl. xviii, f. 1.—Heermann, Ib. X, c, 10.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 347.

Sp. Char. Wings very long; tail forked; tarsi and feet covered with feathers. Black all over, except the chin, throat, middle of the belly as far as the vent, a patch on each side of the rump, the edge of the outer primary, and blotches on the inner webs of the median tail-feathers, near the base, which are white, as is also a band across the ends of the secondaries. Length, 5.50; wing, 5.50; tail, 2.70.

Hab. Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and southern Rocky Mountains, to Guatemala. Localities: Cajon Pass (Cooper, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1861, 122); Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 57); San Diego (Cooper).

Although there is no difference in size between Rocky Mountain and Guatemalan specimens, the only two of the latter in the collection are darker colored, showing scarcely any indication of the frontal and supraloral whitish so conspicuous in most northern skins. In the Guatemalan female (30,837, Dueñas, February 13) the dusky of the lateral, and white of the medial, portions of the breast blend gradually together, there not being that sharp line of junction seen in all the others, including the male from Guatemala (30,836, Dueñas, Nov.).

Panyptila melanoleuca.

Habits. This new species was first discovered by Dr. Kennerly on Bill Williams Fork, New Mexico, February 16, 1854. He speaks of it as a very curious and interesting bird, found by him only among the cañons of that stream, and not observed elsewhere during their journey. Large flocks could be seen at any time in the vicinity of those cañons, flying and circling around very high, and far beyond the reach of shot. Towards the close of the day, when the sun had sunk behind the hills, they occasionally descended lower. He only met with them where the walls of the cañons were very high, and consisted of almost perpendicular masses of rock. At times they were seen to sweep low down, and then to ascend nearly perpendicularly very near the stones, as if examining them in order to select a place for their nests. The construction of these had obviously not then commenced. Dr. Kennerly saw none engaged in the work, nor did he observe any old nests, unless they build after the manner of the common Cliff Swallow, which were also abundant in that region. Mr. Möllhausen was of the opinion that these birds build in the holes and crevices of the cliffs. In their flight and habits they appeared to closely resemble the common Chætura pelagica.

Dr. Heermann met with this species several times, first in San Fernando Pass, near Los Angelos, and again near Palm Spring, between the Colorado desert and Vallicita, at another time near Tucson, and once also in Texas. He always found them flying at a great height, either far beyond or on the extreme limit of gunshot range. From the extent of their wings they seemed formed to live in the air, where they pass most of their time gliding about in extensive circles, with apparently very little motion of the wings. During pleasant weather they found their insect prey in the upper air, but, when cloudy or rainy, they flew nearer the ground in their pursuit. When on the ground, they were observed to rise with difficulty, owing to the shortness of their legs and the length of their wings. When they rest, they always alight on some elevated point whence they can throw themselves into the air, and take to wing. Numbers were observed flying about the rocks near Tucson, but none were heard to utter a note. They were sociable among themselves, gathering in large flocks, but never mingled with the Swallows. He states that they construct their nests in the crevices of rocks, and that their eggs are pure white, and of an elongated form.

Dr. Coues found this species rather sparingly distributed throughout Arizona, always in the neighborhood of cliffs and precipices, which it exclusively inhabits. From Inscription Rock, about one day’s march from Whipple’s Pass, to the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, he found these birds in great numbers, except along the valley of the Colorado Chiquito, where there were no suitable cliffs for their habitation. He generally found them congregated in considerable, sometimes in immense, numbers in the vicinity of huge cliffs and piles of rocks. Their note, he adds, is an often and quickly repeated twitter, loud and shrill, and quite different from that of the C. pelagica. He states that they build their nest upon the vertical faces of precipitous rocks.

Dr. Woodhouse met with a Swift in the same region referred to by Dr. Coues, which he called Acanthylis saxatilis, which may possibly be the same species, but of which no specimen was procured. They were breeding in the crevices of the rocks. The description, however, does not at all correspond.

This species has lately been met with by Mr. Salvin, in Guatemala, where it is by no means common, and so very local that its presence might readily have been overlooked. He found it near Dueñas, in a gorge with precipitous rocks on the right hand, along the course of the river Guacalate. His attention was drawn to a noise coming from the rocks, which he at first took to be bats in some of the cracks. After watching for some time, he saw two Swifts dart into a crack in the rock twenty feet from the ground, and the noise became louder than before. Resorting to several expedients, in vain, to make them fly out, he climbed up part way, and there found one of them killed by a random shot of his gun. Another discharge of his gun brought out five or six more, which were immediately pursued by the Cotyle serripennis. He obtained three specimens in all. The spot was evidently their common roosting-place, and by the noise they made he judged they were there in large numbers. He found them about the middle of February.

Dr. Cooper met with this species near Fort Mohave, but saw none before May. On the 7th of June, near the head of Mohave River, he found a few about some lofty granite cliffs, and succeeded in obtaining one. Their flight was exceedingly swift and changeable, and they were very difficult to shoot. He also found them about some high rocky bluffs close to the sea-shore, twelve miles north of San Diego. They were seen the last of March, but may have been there for a month previously.

Mr. Allen encountered this little-known Swift near Colorado City, where it was quite numerous about the high cliffs in the “Garden of the Gods,” and of which, with great difficulty, he procured four specimens. It was nesting in inaccessible crevices and weather-beaten holes in the rocks, about midway up the high vertical cliffs, some of which were not less than three hundred feet high. It seemed to be very wary, and flew with great velocity, rarely descending within reach of the guns.

The White-throated Swift was met with in great abundance by Mr. Ridgway at the East Humboldt Mountains, and was seen by him more sparingly in the Toyabe and Wahsatch. In the former mountains it inhabited the high limestone cliffs which walled the cañons, congregating in thousands, and nesting in the chinks or crevices of the rocks, in company with the Violet-green Swallow (Tachycincta thalassina). It was a very noisy species, having a vigorous chatter, reminding one somewhat of the notes of young Baltimore Orioles when being fed by their parents. It was also very pugnacious, a couple now and then being seen to fasten upon one another high up in the air, and, clinging together, falling, whirling round and round in their descent, nearly to the ground, when they would let go each other, and separate. A couple would often rush by with almost inconceivable velocity, one in chase of the other. Their flight was usually very high, or, if they occasionally descended, it was so swiftly that Mr. Ridgway only succeeded in shooting three specimens, while he found it utterly impossible to reach their nests, which were in the horizontal fissures in the face of the overhanging cliff.

Subfamily CHÆTURINÆ

This subfamily is characterized by having the normal number of phalanges to the middle and outer toes (4 and 5, instead of 3 and 3), the backward position of the hind toe, and the naked tarsi, which do not even appear to be scutellate, but covered with a soft skin. Of the two North American genera, Chætura has spinous projections at the end of the tail-feathers, while in Nephœcetes the shafts of the tail-feathers, though stiffened, do not project beyond the plume.

This subfamily appears to be composed of two definable sections, with subdivisions as follows:—

A. Tail forked; spinous points of the feathers not extending far beyond the webs, or entirely wanting. Feathering of the sides of the forehead extending forward outside the nostrils nearly to their anterior end.

a. No trace of spinous points to tail-feathers. Feathering of frontal points almost completely enclosing the nostrils between them. No light collar round the neck; sides of the forehead with a hoary suffusion … Nephœcetes.

b. Spinous points of tail-feathers distinct. A light collar round the neck.

1. Nostril as in Nephœcetes. Sides of forehead with a hoary suffusion. Collar chestnut. Wing less than 5.50. (C. rutila.).

2. Feathered frontal points narrower, not reaching anterior end of nostril. Sides of forehead without hoary suffusion. Collar white. Wing more than 8.00 … Hemiprocne.

B. Tail rounded; spinous points of the feathers much elongated and projecting. Feathering of sides of forehead scarcely reaching beyond posterior end of nostril. Wing less than 5.50 … Chætura.

Genus NEPHŒCETES, Baird

Nephœcetes, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 142. (Type, Hirundo nigra, Gmel.)

Nephœcetes niger.

11871 ♀

Gen. Char. Tail rather less than half the wings; quite deeply forked (less so in the female); the feathers obtusely acuminate; the shafts scarcely stiffened. First quill longest. Tarsi and toes completely bare, and covered with naked skin, without distinct indications of scutellæ. Tarsus rather longer than middle toe; the three anterior toes about equal, with moderately stout claws. Claw of middle toe much shorter than its digit. Hind toe not versatile, but truly posterior and opposite, with its claw rather longer than the middle toe without it. Toes all slender; claws moderate. Nostrils widely ovate, the feathers margining its entire lower edge.

Nephœcetes niger.

The comparative characters of this genus will be found in the diagnostic tables at the head of the family. According to Sclater, Cypseloides of Streubel (Isis, 1848, 366) with C. fumigatus as type, may have to be taken for this genus, as it was named by Streubel as an alternative to Hemiprocne, which belongs to Chætura. Until this question of synonymy can be decided positively, we retain Nephœcetes.

The single North American species, N. niger, has a singular distribution, being abundant near Puget Sound in summer, and again found in Jamaica and Cuba, without having been met with in any intermediate locality, except in the Province of Huatasco, Mex. The West India specimens are rather smaller, but otherwise not distinguishable.

Nephœcetes niger, Baird

BLACK SWIFT

? Hirundo niger, Gmel. S. N. I, 1788, 1025. Cypselus niger, Gosse, B. Jam. 1847, 63.—Ib. Illust. B. Jam pl. x.—Gundl. & Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, 1858, 268.—Scl. P. Z. S. 1865, 615. Nephœcetes niger, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 142.—Elliot, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, xx.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 349. Cypselus borealis, Kennerly, P. A. N. S. Philad. IX, Nov. 1857, 202.—Scl. P. Z. S. 1865, 615. Hirundo apus dominicensis, Brisson, II, 1760, 514, pl. xlvi, f. 3.

 

Sp. Char. Wing the length of the body. General color rather lustrous dark sooty-brown, with a greenish gloss, becoming a very little lighter on the breast anteriorly below, but rather more so on the neck and head above. The feathers on top of the head edged with light gray, which forms a continuous wash on each side of the forehead above, and anterior to the usual black crescent in front of the eye. Occasionally some feathers of the under parts behind are narrowly edged with gray. Bill and feet black. Length, 6.75; wing, 6.75; tail, 3.00, the depth of its fork about .45 in the male, and scarcely .15 in the female.

Hab. Washington Territory, Oregon, Nevada, and Orizaba (var. borealis); Cuba and Jamaica (var. niger), breeds. Vera Cruz; breeds (Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 562).

The tail is considerably more forked in the male than in the female, in which it is sometimes nearly even, and in the males its depth varies considerably.

Jamaican specimens (var. niger) are rather smaller, considerably blacker, and seem to have narrower tail-feathers, even when the other dimensions are about equal.

Whether the Puget Sound bird visits the West Indies is not known; but the difference in size and colors between them and the West Indian birds would seem to indicate that they select a more directly southern region. The fact that the Orizaba specimen is most like the Northwest Coast birds favors this latter supposition.

Habits. This Swift is of irregular and local occurrence in the West Indies and in Western North America. Specimens were obtained at Simiahmoo Bay, Washington Territory, by Dr. Kennerly, in July, 1857. Dr. Cooper saw a black Swift, which he thinks may have been this species, in Pah-Ute Cañon, west of Fort Mohave, May 29, 1861, and again at Santa Barbara, May, 1863.

Dr. Gundlach, in his ornithological explorations in Cuba, in 1858, met with this species among the mountains between Cienfuegos and Trinidad, on the southern coast of that island, and also in the eastern parts of the Sierra Maestra. He saw these birds for the first time in the month of May, near Bayamo, where they commonly arrived every morning about one hour after sunrise, and flew in a circular direction over the river at a considerable height, making their evolutions always in the same place, apparently employed in catching the insects attracted by the proximity of the river. In the month of June they came every day towards noon, whenever it threatened to rain, and sometimes returned again after sunset. When tired of their exercise they always flew together towards the mountains, where he had no doubt their breeding-places existed. He states that when one of these birds flies in chase of another, it emits a soft continued note, not unlike a song. Having taken many young birds in the month of June, he supposes that these Swifts breed in April and May.

It is stated by Sumichrast to have been occasionally met with in the table-lands of Mexico, and that it is resident and breeds within the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

A single specimen of this bird was known to Gosse to have been taken near Spanishtown in Jamaica, in 1843, in company with many others. Mr. March, in his paper on the birds of this island, gives a similar account of the habits of this species to that of Dr. Gundlach. He states that it was rarely seen except at early dawn, or in dull and cloudy weather, or after rain in an afternoon. He has sometimes procured specimens from Healthshire and the St. Catharine Hills. The only place known to him as their actual resort is a cave in the lower St. Catharine Hills, near the ferry, where they harbor in the narrow deep galleries and fissures of the limestone rocks.

Mr. J. K. Lord cites this species as among the earliest of the spring visitors seen by him in British Columbia. On a foggy morning early in June, the insects being low, these birds were hovering close to the ground, and he obtained four specimens. He saw no more until the fall of the year, when they again made their appearance in large numbers, among the many other birds of that season. He again saw this Swift at Fort Colville.

Captain Prevost, R. N., obtained a single specimen of this bird on Vancouver Island, which Mr. Sclater compared with Gosse’s Cypselus niger, from Jamaica. He, however, is not satisfied as to their identity, and is inclined to regard the two birds as distinct.

According to Captain Feilner, this species breeds in the middle of June, on high rocks on the Klamath River, about eight miles above Judah’s Cave.

The Black Swift was seen by Mr. Ridgway, during his western tour, only once, when, about the middle of June, an assembly of several hundreds was observed early one morning hovering over the Carson River, below Fort Churchill, in Nevada. In the immediate vicinity was an immense rocky cliff, where he supposed they nested. In their flight they much resembled Chimney-Swallows (Chætura), only they appeared much larger. They were perfectly silent. On the Truckee River, near Pyramid Lake, in May of the same year, he found the remains of one which had been killed by a hawk, but the species was not seen there alive.

Genus CHÆTURA, Stephens

Chætura, Stephens, Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. Birds, XIII, II, 1825, 76. (Type, C. pelagica.)

Acanthylis, Boie, Isis, 1826, 971. (Cypselus spinicauda.)

Chætura pelagica.

1010 ♀

Gen. Char. Tail very short, scarcely more than two fifths the wings; slightly rounded; the shafts stiffened and extending some distance beyond the feathers in a rigid spine. First primary longest. Legs covered by a naked skin, without scutellæ or feathers. Tarsus longer than middle toe. Lateral toes equal, nearly as long as the middle. Hind toe scarcely versatile, or quite posterior; including claw, less than the middle anterior without it. Toes slender; claws moderate. Feathers of the base of the bill not extending beyond the beginning of the nostrils.

By the arrangement of the genera on page 1018, the C. rutila and large white-collared species are excluded from the present genus as restricted. Chætura, as here defined, is a genus of very extensive distribution, species occurring not only in North and South America, but also in Africa and Asia. Among the several American members, three styles are distinguishable, these probably representing only as many species; the several more closely allied forms being, in all probability, but geographical modifications of these three types. They may be arranged as follows:—

Plumage with no marked contrast of shades

C. pelagica. Nearly uniformly dusky grayish-brown, the throat, however, very much lighter, and the rump just appreciably so.

Above glossy dusky-brown, hardly appreciably paler on the rump; abdomen scarcely paler than the back. Wing, 5.20. Hab. Eastern Province North America … var. pelagica.

Above glossy blackish-dusky, very decidedly paler on the rump; abdomen very much paler than the back. Wing, 4.50. Hab. Pacific Province of North America, south to Guatemala (from whence specimens are much darker, almost black above, and slightly smaller) … var. vauxi.

Above glossy black, fading into sooty dusky on the rump; abdomen like the rump. Wing, 4.80. Hab. Northern South America (Cayenne, Tobago) … var. poliura.¹¹⁰

Plumage with marked contrast of shades

C. cinereiventris. ¹¹¹ Upper parts, except the rump, glossy, intense blue-black; rump and lower parts bluish-cinereous, conspicuously different.

C. spinicauda. ¹¹² Upper parts glossy black, with a white band across the rump. Below sooty-whitish, with indistinct black marks on the breast, wing, 3.90. Hab. Cayenne and Brazil.

Chætura pelagica, Baird

CHIMNEY SWALLOW

Hirundo pelagica, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1758, 192. Hirundo pelasgia, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 345.—Wils. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 48, pl. xxxix, fig. 1. Cypselus pelasgia, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 329; V, 419, pl. clviii. Chætura pelasgia, Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. Birds, XIII, II, 1825, 76.—Ib. Birds America, I, 1840, 164, pl. xliv.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 144.—Samuels, 116.—Allen, Birds Fla. 301. Acanthylis pelasgia, “Temm.”—Bon. Consp. 1850, 64.—Cassin, Ill. I, 1855, 241. Hemiprocne pelasgia, Streubel, Isis, 1848, 363. Aculeated Swallow, Penn. Arc. Zoöl. II, 1785, 432. Cypselus pelasgius, Max. Cab. Journ. 1858.

Chætura pelagica.

Sp. Char. Tail slightly rounded. Sooty-brown all over, except on the throat, which becomes considerably lighter from the breast to the bill. Above with a greenish tinge; the rump a little paler. Length, 5.25; wing, 5.10; tail, 2.15.

Hab. Eastern United States to slopes of Rocky Mountains?

The etymology of the specific name of pelasgia, used by Linnæus, of this bird, in the twelfth edition of Systema Naturæ, has always been a question. We find that the word in the tenth edition is pelagica, referring probably to the supposed passage over the Caribbean Sea in its annual migrations.

Chætura vauxi, the western representative of this bird, is extremely similar, but distinguishable by considerably smaller size, much lighter, almost white, throat, paler rump, and under parts decidedly lighter than the back. C. poliura, which much resembles it, is blacker above, and much darker below. (See synopsis on page 1027.)

Habits. The common Chimney Swallow of North America has an extended range throughout the eastern portions of the continent, from the Atlantic to the 50th parallel of northern latitude. It was not met with by Dr. Richardson in the fur regions, but was found by Say at Pembina, on the Red River, in what is now the northern part of Minnesota. Its western range is not well determined, but is presumed to be terminated by the great plains. It has been found as far west as Bijoux Hill, in Nebraska.

In its habits, especially during the breeding-season, this Swift presents many remarkable differences from the European species. While the latter are shy and retiring, shunning the places frequented by man, and breeding chiefly in caves or ruined and deserted habitations, their representatives in eastern North America, like all the Swallow family here, have, immediately upon the erection of the dwellings of civilized life, manifested their appreciation of the protection they afford, by an entire change in their habits in regard to the location of their nests. When the country was first settled, these birds were known to breed only in the hollow trunks of forest trees. The chimneys of the dwellings of civilized communities presented sufficient inducements, in their greater convenience, to tempt this bird to forsake their primitive breeding-places. The change in this respect has been nearly complete. And now, in the older portions of the country, they are not known to resort to hollow trees for any other purpose than as an occasional roosting-place.