PETROCIIELIIJON. 241 



white around their tips ; throat and breast white, the latter washed with brown on the lower 

 portion; abdomen and under tail-coverts brown, the latter broadly margined with wliity-brown. 

 Wing 3'6 inches. 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this species 

 in Eastern Australia. 



Petrochelidon nigricans. 



TREE-SWALLOW. 

 Ilirundo nigricans, Vieijl., Nouv. Diet, d' Hist, Tom. XIV., p. 523, (1817). 

 Collocalia arhorea, Gould, Bds. Aust., fol. Vol. II., pi. 14 (1^48). 

 Hylochelidon nigricans, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. Ill (1865). 

 Petrochelidon nigricans, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. X , p. 190 (1885). 



Adult male — General colour abore dark steel blue, the bases of the feathers on the mantle, 

 back and rump broivnish -white, tinged with sandy buff] with indistinct darker shaft streaks to 

 laost of the feathers : upper tail-coverts brown, with brownish-white margins: wings and tail dusky- 

 brown; crown of the head like the back; across the forehead extends a dull rufous band; feathers in 

 front and below the eye blackish ; ear-coverts smoky-broion ; chin and throat dull white tinged initli 

 buff', all the feathers having narrow blackish shaft-streaks ; remainder of the under surface dull sandy 

 rufous, paler on the foreneck, richer on tlie lower flanks and under tail-coverts, the centre of the breast 

 and abdomen almost tohite ; bill black: legs and feel purplish-black, iris black, Total length in the 

 flesh ■'>'3 inches, iving 4'~, central tail feathers lu, outer tail feathers 2'1, bill 25, tarsus O'JfO. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria. South Australia, Western Australia, 

 Tasmania, New Guinea, Aru Islands. 



f |(i^HIS widely distributed species has been recorded from nearly every part of Australia, 

 J- and is a regular visitant to Tasmania. In New South Wales it is freely distributed 

 from August until the end of March or April, but in mild winters stragglers may be obtained 

 throughout the year. I saw a large flock on the 2ist June, 1S96, at Goodlet's Bush, Canterbury. 

 They were on the wing " hawking " after insects. It evinces a preference for the coastal districts, 

 particularly those studded with tall and wide spreading Eucalypti. It is also common during the 

 late Spring and Summer months in and around Sydney and Adelaide. In- my early collecting 

 days it also used to be common in the Albert Park and Richmond Paddock near Melbourne, 

 where it remained to breed. In both of these localities, even during the breeding season, these 

 birds used to congregate in large flocks on the grassy sward. In company with Mr. George 

 Savidge, at Copmanhurst in December 1907, I saw a large number of these birds nesting in a 

 tall Eucalypt near his house. Some were seen entering holes in hollow limbs, many were 

 performing graceful evolutions on the wing, while a little distance away were a few small flocks 

 resting on the ground. 



.\s pointed out by Gould there is a variation in the depth of colour of the band on the 

 forehead and on the under surface. Some specimens have the breast nearly white and with 

 scarcely a trace of the sandy-rufous hue on the foreneck and sides of the body. The lighter 

 under surface is also characteristic of immaturity as is exhibited by the intermingled smoky- 

 brown and deep steel-blue feathers on the back. I cannot find any appreciable difference in 

 size between examples from Western Australia and New South Wales. The wing-measurement 



