140 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



buff- white ground colour, blotched and freckled all over 

 with light-brown and umber-brown markings, particularly 

 towards the larger end. Occasionally one egg in a set is 

 found of a dull-white ground colour, with a well-defined 

 zone of dark umber round the larger end." 



This Wood Swallow is well known to colonists as one 

 of their best bird friends, and, being- in such large num- 

 bers, they destroy an enormous number of insects of all 

 kinds. Unfortunately, however, the nests being so ex- 

 posed rendered these an easy prey to the itinerant sports- 

 man, also to the egg hunter, the former nuisance being 

 largest responsible for the Avholesale destruction of the 

 bird life of the colony. When closing this chapter a 

 report has been received from the Inspector who was sent 

 up to the north-west part of the colony to study the 

 locust pest, and to conduct experiments with the locust 

 fungus, to the effect that of all the birds which had been 

 attacking the locusts the Wood Swallow had done the 

 best work, the birds being in large flocks, and devoted 

 themselves entirely to locust destruction. 



If ever there was a bird which deserves the protection 

 of every man, woman, and child in Victoria it is the 

 Wood Swallow, this useful and pretty harbinger of 

 summer. 



