238 



HIRUNDINID.E. 



a great noise after the female had been sitting for ten days, I found a Starling beside the nest, 

 and before the window could be thrown up and the intruder driven away, I saw it pick up and 

 devour two of the Swallow's eggs. Three young ones were eventually reared from this nest. 

 For a second brood they removed the nest of the previous year on the opposite of the gable and 

 constructed a new one. This is the only occasion I have known this species to remove a nest, 

 but it is a common occurrence for them to build a new nest on the old one of the previous 

 season. I have seen four nests placed one in the otiier. When able to shift for themselves 

 the young birds left the place, but the old pair remained throughout the year. Odd nests are 

 more often found in the neighbourhood of Sydney during the spring-like weather of March and 

 April. On the 17th March, 1907, I observed a nest with young at Lindfield, and exactly twelve 

 months later one at Chatswood. 



Nest-building usually occupies twelve days, the eggs are deposited daily, incubation lasting 

 fourteen days, and the young leave the nest when eighteen to twenty days old. 



Cheramoeca leucosternum. 



WHITK-BKEASTED SWALLOW. 

 Hirundo leucoslernus, Gould, Proc, Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 172. 

 Auicora leiicosternon, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 12 (1848). 

 Cheramreca leucosterna, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 115 (186-5). 

 Cheramif'ca leucosternutn, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. X., p. 171, (188.5). 



Adult male — Forehead and crown of the head, while, the central portion of the latter pale brown, 

 the nape and hind neck brown; mantle and upper back pure white; lower back, rump and upper 

 tail-coverts black; wings and tail black; lores black; feathers below the eye and the ear-coverts broivn; 

 throat, foreneck and upper breast pure white; lower breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts black; 

 under wing-coverts white; "bill blackish; legs and feet flesh-colour, iris reddish-broivn" (Bennett). 

 Total length 58 inches; iving J^, central tail feathers 1-55, outer tail feathers S-1, billO-22, tarsus OS. 



Adult female — Similar in plum,age to the male 



Distribution— Queensla.nd, New South Wales, South Australia, Central Australia, Western 

 Australia, North-western Australia. 



/nps 



Mr, 



1 1 E range of the White-breasted 

 Swallow extends over the south- 

 western portion of Queensland, \\'estern 

 New South Wales, Central Australia, South 

 Australia, Western and North-western 

 Australia. Mr. George Masters obtained 

 adults and young at Mongup, Salt River in 

 Western Australia in 1869, Mr. K. Broadbent 

 at Port Augusta, South Australia; the late 

 Mr. K. H. Bennett, at Moolah; and Mr. E. L. 

 Ramsay near Louth, Western New South 

 Wales. Specimens were obtained by the 

 members of the Horn Scientific Expedition 

 in Central Australia, and by the Calvert 

 Exploring Expedition in Western Australia. 

 T. Carter informs me that he has found it breeding at Point Cloates in North Western 



WHITE-BREASTED SWALLOW. 



