242 HIRINDINID.E. 



of an adult male obtained by Mr. George Masters at King George's Sound, Western Australia, 

 in October 1868, is 4-1 inches; of an adult male procured at Ashfield, New South Wales, in 

 May, 4' 1 5 inches. Adult males from different parts of New South Wales vary in wing- 

 measurement from 4-1 to 4'2 inches. 



Although Dr. R. B. Sharpe and Mr. Claude W. Wyatt figure this species in their 

 "Monograph of the Hirundinida' " under the name oi PdrochcUdon nigricans, they remark in 

 their introduction, "P. nigricans is apparently a true PetrochcUdon in form and style of colour; 

 but it breeds in holes of trees, and makes a nest of straw and feathers. It will be probably 

 necessary to separate these Tree-building Swallows from the ClifF-building species so as to 

 include two species in Hylochelidon, viz., H. nigricans and H. timoricHsis." 



I have never heard of P. nigricans using feathers as a lining for its nest, but it does resort to 

 cliffs to breed, and although it does not form a nest there in a true Cliff-Swallow fashion, mud is 

 often used as an aid in narrowing the entrance to the nest. 



Mr. Thos. P. Austin of Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, sends me the 

 following notes : — " Petrochelidon nigricans is very plentiful throughout this district during the latter 

 part of the year and usually departs again about the end of January. They breed here in great 

 numbers, placing their nests in very large dead trees, often in a very small hole at an elbow of 

 a thin branch, and very seldom less than twenty feet from the ground. The nest consists of 

 nothing more than a handful of dry Eucalypt leaves. Often when the bird is sitting she will 

 allow the hole to be chopped open and the eggs taken from beneath her, and even then will not 

 leave her nest. It is not an unusual thing to see more than one pair of birds building the same 

 nest, or several pairs of birds nesting in the same tree, and upon two occasions I have found 

 them nesting in the same branch and within a few feet of Psephotus haematonotus. This habit of 

 more than one species of bird nesting in the same tree appears to be no uncommon occurrence. 

 Two trees especially have come under my notice within the past twelve months ; one was a very 

 large Yellow Bo.x tree growing along the bank of the Talbragar River on Cobborah Station, 

 New South Wales, in which I noted the following species breeding: — Corone australis, Haliastur 

 sphenurns, GraUina picata, Euryitomns australis, Glossopsittacus concinnus and Notophoyx novae-hollandiac. 

 The other tree which came under my notice was a large Red Gum, also growing along the bank 

 of the Talbragar River, and only about one mile from the tree just mentioned. In this tree in 

 1908 I noticed the following species nesting : — Haliastur sphcnurus, and attached to the underneath 

 part of this nest a pair of Staganopleura guttata had their nest, and within the hollows were the 

 nests of Dacelo gigas, Cacatua galerita, Platycercns eximius and Psephotus haematonotus." 



From Broken Hill Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me : — " Petrochelidon nigricans is a very 

 common bird in the spring, nesting in the gums along all the creeks in this district. It arrives 

 early in the spring or late winter, August being the usual month, and starts nesting right away ; 

 by the middle of September m^ost nests contain young. A few birds remain throughout the 

 winter, but most leave here late in April or early in May. Their arrival depends greatly upon 

 the season. In 1903 they were breeding in August. In 1904 very few were seen till late in 

 September. In 1905 and 1906 there were nests in July. They usually nest in a small hollow 

 spout from six to eighteen inches from the opening ; sometimes when the opening is large, it is 

 narrowed with mud by the bird. The nest is nearly always composed of small leaves. When 

 the young are hatched, both parents feed them and attend to the sanitary condition of the nest, 

 the excreta being carried out and dropped about thirty to forty feet from the nest, when the 

 old bird comes out after feeding them. If not molested they become very tame. A pair this 

 season reared a brood in the stone work of the dining room at Poolamacca Station." 



Both in Victoria and New South Wales I had previously only found this species nestmg 

 in the hollow limbs of trees, but on the 4th December, igoo, in company with Dr. A. M. Morgan, 

 I visited " Holmfirth," the residence of Mr. J. H. Mellor, at the Reedbeds near Adelaide, an 



