^: 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AVSTRALIAN B/A'PS. 



or October, and after rearing a brood or two return again about March 

 or the beginning of Apiil. The last indivicUials I licard or saw in the 

 Murray district one season wei'o on the 11th April (1892). Another 

 season I noticed several of these birds (evidently first annvnls) at 

 Bannockbuni, Riverina, on the 17tli September, 1894. 



Mr. Lau, in his manuscript notes, says there is a third kind of Wood 

 Swallow found on the Darling Downs, and from his description — 

 " plump in figure, black and white in colour." — it is, I have no dovibt. 

 referable to the White-i-umped Wood Swallow. They appear in August- 

 there. He had often seen and shot them on the bovuidai-j' of New 

 South Wales and Queensland, and was acquainted with their peculiar 

 habit of flj'ing together and sometimes forming themselves into a cluster 

 of at least fifty birds, like a swarm of bees. 



The novel sight, Mr. Lau says, is wonderful to behold, and is usually 

 high up in a tree. This bunching performance has also been recorded 

 for the common Wood Swallow and the Black-faced variety. But wliv 

 thev do it has not yet been explained satisfactorily. 



Two nests taken by Gilbert on a small island in Coral Bay, Northern 

 Territory, were compactlv formed of wii-y grass and portions of tbe 

 fine plants gi'owing on the beach ; they were placed in a fork of a 

 slender mangi-ove within fifteen feet of the water, in which the tree 

 was gi'owing. 



Mr. K. Broadbent observed the Wliite-nimped W^ood Swallow breed- 

 ing in Augu.st (1887 or 1888), in a large eucalyptus overhanging the 

 upper Fitzroy River, Queensland. 



The Wliito-iTunped Wood Swallows Gould found breeding on the 

 Mokai, New South Wales, had possessed themselves of the forsaken nest 

 of the GrnUhin -pirnfa or Magpie Lark, which the Wood Swallow had 

 rendered warm and of proper size bv lining it with grasses, fibrous roots, 

 A'c. Gould's statement has since been verified bv other field observers ; 

 and in the season of 1892, in the Murray district, Mr. Gabriel and myself 

 enjoyed the opportimitv of making ourselves personally acquainted 

 with several examples " of a nest within a nest." The birds were 

 generally observed ne.ir a river or a swamp, either situation being 

 of coui'se favourable for Grallinas' nests. Tlie first Wood Swallow's nest 

 was discovered on the .'ith November. (See illustration.) It was 

 neatlv built into the Grallina's old nest and contained three eggs, their 

 delicate mottled appearance being rendered mast beautiful by the roseate 

 blush caused bv the reflection from the volk witliin. However, the 

 blush qiiickly depai-ts when the eggs are blown. The tree containing 

 the nest was a small red gum, standing in a lagoon. It was a lively tree, 

 for it also contained another Grallina's nest with that bird's own young, 

 and a Bla<'k and White Fantail's home with a triplet of fresh eggs. On 

 the 7th November we found another Wood Swallow's nest with young 

 ones, again in a Grallina's ne.st, situated in a low ti'ce. A third nest 

 was taken on the 12th from a similar place in a solitary red gimi-tree 

 that stood back some distance from the river. In tliis instance it con- 

 tained a full complement of four eggs. Other White-rumped Wood 

 Swallows' nests were observed the same week, either building or with 

 yoimg ; bvit all, without exception, in the usual roomy and comfortable 

 receptacle — a Grallina's old home. 



