234 HIRUNDINID*. 



bark, and in one instance was lined with fine grass, and is about three inches in diameter. The 

 eggs are three in number, white, slightly longer than those of P. punctatns, and about the same 

 breadth. I have only taken two sets of eggs, and found one nest with three young ones about 

 two or three days old. Two of the nests were taken in a gully on the southern slope of Mount 

 Nelson, near Hobart, and the third on the slope of Mount Wellington, near Glenorchy. The 

 nests with eggs were taken on the 4th December, 1882, and the 28th December, 1886; the nest 

 with young was found on the 6th January, 1886. I have once seen this bird feeding four 

 young ones, but regard three eggs to be the normal number for a sitting." 



The eggs are three or four in number, varying from oval to an ellipse in form, pure 

 white, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. A set of four taken on Mount 

 Wellington, near Hobart in October 1885, measures: — Length (A) 0-65 x 0-5 inches; (B) 0-65 

 X 0-51 inches; (C) o'63 x 0-52 inches; (D) o-66 x 0-5 inches. A set of three in Mr. G. A. 

 Keartland's collection, received with a skin of the parent, measures: — Length (.\) 0-63 x o'5 

 inches; (B) 0-64 x o'52 inches; (C) 0-62 x 0-5 inches. 



Family HIRUNDINID^. 



Sub-family HIRUN DINING. 



O-en-as laril^TJISTIDO, LimuKus. 



Hirundo neoxena. 



WELCOME SWALLOW. 

 Hirundo neoxena, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 131 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 13 



(1848); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mas., Vol. X., p. 144 (1885). 

 H inmdo frontalis, (nee Quoy et Gaim.), Gould, Handbk. Bds Austr., Vol. I., p. 107 (1865). 



Adult male — General colour above glossy steel-blue; lesser and median iving-coverts like the back, 

 the greater coverts and quills dusky-brown slightly glossed with green, which is more distinct on the 

 innermost secondaries; tail feathers dusky-brown, slightly glossed with green, all but the central pair 

 ivUh a large subterminal spot of white on the inner web and passing into an oblique band on the 

 outermost feather on either side; forehead and occiput dxdl chestnut-red, a line of feathers extending 

 from the nostril in front of the eye dusky; chin, cheeks, a,nd throat light cheUnut-red ; remainder of 

 the U7ider surface very pale brown, whitish on the centre of the breast and the abdomen, under tail- 

 coverts dull white washed rvith pale brown, the longest feathers with dull glossy greenish-black tips. 

 Total length in the flesh from tip of bill to end of outermost tail feathers 6-G inches, wing J^-O, central 

 tail feathers 2, outermost tail feather 3 6, bill 0-28, tarsus O'lf. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage, to the male. 



Distribution — Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia, Central Australia, 

 Western Australia, North-western Australia, Tasmania. 



" IPs) ROB ABLY no bird is better known throughout Australia and Tasmania than the Welcome 

 -C Swallow. Whether it is our lot to dwell in a city or in lonely out-lying districts, we are 



almost certain to have the company of this sociable little bird, for the greater part, if not the 

 entire year. It is a resident species in the neighbourhood of Sydney and is usually met with in 

 pairs during the normal nesting season from August until the end of December or January, or 

 accompanied only by its young. The flight of this Swallow is most graceful and rapid, whether 

 flying a few inches above the ground, or hawking for insects in flocks high in the air. During 

 the spring and summer months one may meet it in the streets of the city coming at a great rate 



