XE.'^TS AVP EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. _jG^ 



end of that season, which was the following March (1893), when I noticed 

 the Wood Swallows about. On the lOtli thi> familiar chirping voices 

 could be heard from tiie birds circling on high. Sometimes they fly 

 so high that in the full flood of sunlight it is difTicult to detect the birds 

 thorns :lvos. After the 6th April I neither saw nor heard any more that 

 season. 



On Dec. 12tii, 1891. 1 tiioiiglit I ii. Mid the voices of the Whit'.'-browed 

 Wood Swallow flying high over Armadale : my ears did not deceive me, 

 for my young and enthusiastic fiicnd, Mr. J. Sommers, obtained a few 

 skins near Cheltenliam during Christma.stidc. However, the follovring 

 year (1895), a great irniption of birds occurred in Victoria, and they 

 were breeding plentifully in the vicinity of Melbourne — in such places 

 as the Horticultural Gardens (Burnley), llic Royal Park, kc. in fact 

 they were seen nesting in tiie trees about the streets and gardens 

 of Toorak, Cambcrwcll, and other suburban places. No doubt these 

 highly interesting birds were driven down by the exceptionally dry 

 season of tho interior. The year 1895 was the second lowest record 

 for rainfall (17-06 inches), the average for the State of Victoria for the 

 ])ast thirty-nine years being '25-87 inches. 



The first of these Wood Swallows appeared in Victoria during 

 September. Dr. Macgillivray observed them at Elmore, in the Bendigo 

 district, on the 25th of that month. My son reported lie had scon a 

 flock of about fifty birds at the Horticultural Gardens. 7th October. 

 They remained a few days and were off again ; while Mr. C. C. 

 Brittlebank writes in October. " A flock of White-browed Wood 

 Swallows, with a few Masked (A. iii-v<iii(itus) birds, rested here for 

 a couple of days." 



Some of tiie flocks made their way far into the wooded tracts of 

 Eastern Gippsland, where they were seen by Mr. D. Le Souef in 

 November. 



Mr. C. C. Brittlebank, again writing from Myrniong, 16th April, 

 1896, says: — "The other moniing I was up long before daylight, when 

 a large flock of birds passed over, taking quite fifteen or twentv minutes 

 to do so. Their call was exactlv like the White-browed Wood Swallow. 

 They were travelling N. by N.E." 



In 1897 (the third year in succession for great numbers) they were 

 first noted at Burnley, 6th September. They commenced to breed at 

 Cheltenham in the middle of November ; at the end of January, near 

 Camberwell, I saw them feeding their young with g^-as.shoppers. Tlie 

 Wood Swallows appeared again in 1898 and 1899. 



It was indeed a sui-prise to ornithologists to see crowds of these fine 

 birds in Victoria in five successive seasons ; but if we remember the 

 disastrous drought then existing in the interior generally (practically for 

 seven years in the Cooper's Creek district), the interesting visits of the 

 birds are accounted for. One season (1898) White-browed Wood 

 Swallows appeared in Victoria unusually early. They were noticed 

 at Pine Plains with their Masked brethren at the end of August. 



In Mr. Lau's MS. we find: — " Artarnio: xiiprrrih'ofius:. — This fine 

 Wood Swallow — the handsomest of that family — visits the southern 

 part of Queensland. Found in the Siindy districts, arriving from the 



