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.