240 



HIRUNDINID.E. 



latcopsis for their nests; they widen them just inside the entrance and build there, never going to 

 the chamber at the end of the burrow. When much disturbed, as these birds were at Laura, 

 they will drill holes three feet six inches to four feet in length, but to the north of Port Augusta 

 the holes are usually only eighteen inches to two feet in length. When there are a number of 

 these birds they sometimes make a common shelter burrow. The entrance is like a nesting 

 burrow but it widens out inside to a diameter of si.x or eight inches and as much as three feet in 

 length, the chamber being approximately twice as high as broad. At Mount Gunson on the 

 29th July, 1900, I found Psephotus multicolor breeding in an old burrow of these birds. The 

 burrow contained one Parrakeet's egg and the female was shot on leaving it." 



Mr. Chas. G. Gibson writes me: — "At Laverton, Western Australia in 1905, I found 

 Cheramceca leucosternum nesting in the side of an old tailings dump on the 4th September. On the 

 i8th October, I dug out a nest containing four young, in the side of a tenanted rabbit-burrow. 

 Also another on the 27th October, with four big young, in the side of an old rabbit-burrow. In 

 the East Murchison District of Western Australia, the favourite nesting site of the White- 

 breasted Swallow is in the side of an abandoned shaft where it is usually pretty safe. At Sir 

 Samuel, on the 13th September, 1906, I found a nest in a bank with four fresh eggs, and at 

 Darlot on the 6th October one in an old tailings heap with four fresh eggs, and another in the 

 side of an old shaft with five fresh eggs." 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett wrote as follows from Moolah, in the Central Division of New 

 South Wales: — "Although this bird has a wide range throughout the back country, it is by no 

 means numerous anywhere. It is generally met with in small flocks from five to ten in number 

 skimming over the patches of open ground or swamps, in much the same manner as the common 

 House Swallow ( Hirnndo ncoxcna); it is not, however, a partial migrant like that species, but 

 remains throughout the year. It forms long tunnels in the sides of the entrances to the burrows 

 of either the Brush-tailed Kangaroo Rat (Bettoiigia peuicillata), or the common Rabbit Bandicoot 

 (Perageles lagotis), whether inhabited by these animals or not, and in which it sleeps at night. 

 Should one of these dormitories be discovered, the capture of the whole flock is easy, the specimens 

 procured for the Australian Museum being obtained in this way. In a chamber hollowed out 

 at the end of these burrows the female deposits her eggs on the bare sand during the months of 

 September and October. The eggs are five or six in number and pure white." 



Mr. Edward Lord Ramsay informs me that during several years residence on Wattagoona 

 Station near Louth, in the Western District of New South Wales, he found many nests of this 

 species. In favourable situations they breed in small communities, boring a tunnel from eight 

 inches to two feet in length in the loose loamy soil of the bank of a dry creek or dam, at the 

 extremity of which a chamber is hollowed out, and on the bottom a small saucer-shaped nest is 

 formed of a thick layer of dead"Mulga" leaves (Acacia aneura). Two of these nests in the 

 -Vustralian Museum collection are nearly flat, and average each four inches and a quarter in 

 diameter. In a number of nests examined, five eggs were the usual number laid for a sitting, 

 in one instance only did he find a nest containing six. The eggs are invariably true ovals in 

 form and pure white. The set of six referred to, taken on the 28th September, 1887, measure 

 as follows: — Length (A) o-68 x 0-5 inches ; (6)07 x 0-5 inches; (C) o-68 x 0-5 inches ; (D) 

 0-69 X 0*5 inches; (E) 07 x 0-49 inches; (F) o-68 x 0-51 inches. Another set of four taken 

 by Mr. Ramsay on the same date, measures: — Length (A) 0-67 x 0-5 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-48 

 inches; (C) o 67 x o'48 inches; (D) 0-67 x 0^49 inches. 



Young birds differ from the adults in having the forehead and crown of the head brown, 

 with a white frontal band extending in a narrow line over the eyes and widening out on the sides 

 of the nape; mantle and upper back white washed with brown; hindneck, lower back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts brown, with narrow whity-brown margins to most of the feathers; wings 

 and tail brown, the central tail feathers and all but the outermost quills narrowly edged with 



