Zoological Society, 59 



Hab. The whole of the southern coast of Australia and Van Die- 

 men's Land. 



Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield considered this species to be iden- 

 tical with the bird figured by Sparmann in the ' Museum Carlsonia- 

 num' under the name of Hirundo Javanica, which is there represented 

 with a square tail, and which, if drawn correctly, is not only specifi- 

 cally but generically distinct. Those gentlemen Hkewise considered 

 it to be identical with the Hirondelle Orientale of M. Temminck's 



* Planches Coloriees,' but from which also I conceive it to be distinct. 

 On the contrary, the swallow figured in Griffith's edition of Cuvier's 



* Animal Kingdom' is certainly the Australian bird ; but as the spe- 

 cific term there given had been previously employed by Sparmann, 

 as mentioned above, the necessity of a new name for the present 

 bird has been forced upon me ; and that of neoxena has suggested 

 itself as appropriate, from the circumstance of its appearance through- 

 out the whole of the southern portions of Australia being hailed as a 

 welcome indication of the approach of spring, and its arrival there 

 associated with precisely the same ideas as those popularly enter- 

 tained respecting our own pretty swallow in Europe. The two 

 species are in fact beautiful representatives of each other, and assi- 

 milate not only in their migratory movements, but also most closely 

 in their whole habits, actions and economy. 



CoLLocALiA Ariel. Coll. vertice ferrugineo -rubra, dorso, plumis 

 scapularibus, et alarum tectricibus saturate metullico-cceruleis, 

 uropygio fulvescenti-albo, tectricibus caudce fuscis ; corpore subtus 

 albo, ferrugineo tincto. 

 Crown of the head rust-red ; back, scapularies and wing-coverts 

 deep steel-blue ; wings and tail dark brown ; rump bufFy white ; up- 

 per tail-coverts brown ; under surface white, tinged with rust-red, 

 particularly on the sides of the neck and flanks ; the feathers of the 

 throat with a fine line of dark brown down the centre ; irides black- 

 ish brown ; bill blackish grey ; legs and feet olive-grey. 



Total length, 4 inches ; bill, | ; wing, 3| ; tail, 1 J ; tarsi, ^. 

 Hab. The southern portions of Australia. 



DiCRURUS BRACTEATus. Dic. corpore suprcl et infrcL saturate nigra ; 

 plumis capitis lunuld metallico-viridi, illis corporis prceserfim pec- 

 toris guttd ejusdem splendoris, ad apicem bracteatis. 



Head, body above and below deep black ; the feathers of the head 

 with a crescent, and the feathers of the body, particularly of the 

 breast, with a spot of deep metallic green at the tip ; wings and tail 

 deep glossy green ; under wing- coverts black, tipped with white ; 

 irides brownish red ; bill and feet blackish brown. 



Total length, 10^ inches ; bill, 1| ; wing, 6 ; tail, 5^ ; tarsi, J. 



Hab. The eastern and northern coasts of Australia. 



Syn. Dicrurus balicassius, Vig. 8f Horsf., but not of Lath. 



Rhipidura dryas, Gould. Rhipi. fronte, dorso inferiore, tectrici- 

 busque caudcB ferrugineis ; caudd fuscescenti-cinered, rectricibus 

 duabus intermediis ad apicem obscure albo notatis, reliquis per 

 partem apicalem tertiam albis. 



