LINES OF MIGRATORY FLIGHT i6i 



There are four species of swallows that reach 

 South Australia, three of which are certainly mi- 

 gratory. The welcome swallow {Hirundo neoxena) 

 a species that received its common name through 

 the pleasure that its appearance gave early white 

 settlers, has been recorded by Morgan near Ade- 

 laide throughout the year, but is less numerous 

 through the winter period. Some of those that re- 

 main are not seriously inconvenienced by cold, as 

 occasionally they breed at that season. However, 

 it has been stated that after cold nights ten or a 

 dozen of these swallows have been found dead in 

 the reed beds to which they resort to roost. The 

 fairy martin {Lagenoplastes artel) is a strictly mi- 

 gratory species, while the white-breasted swallow 

 (Cheramoeca leucosternori) at Laura, 140 miles north 

 of Adelaide, where at an altitude of 700 feet the 

 winter is cold, is strictly migratory, though at sea- 

 level, at Port Augusta, only sixty miles away, where 

 the winter air is milder, the birds are resident. It is 

 possible that here they perform only a brief altitudi- 

 nal flight. The welcome swallow and the white- 

 breasted swallow cross to the island of Tasmania to 

 breed but return to the continent to winter. 



In New Zealand the Australian avocet, an Aus- 

 tralian heron {Notophoyx novaehollandiae) ^ a night- 

 heron {Nycticorax caledonkus)^ the Australian tree- 

 duck {Leptotarsis eytoni)^ a teal {Nettion castaneum)^ 



