106 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



the Swallow, returns annually to spend the months of summer 

 in Australia. I think it likely that this may be the case, and 

 that it may have been frequently confounded with the Acan- 

 thylis caudacuta, as I have more than once seen the two 

 species united in flocks, hawking together in the cloudless 

 skies, like the Martins and Swallows of England. 



Throat and rump white ; upper and under surface of the 

 body brown ; the back tinged with a bronzy metallic lustre ; 

 each feather of the under surface margined with white ; wings 

 and tail dark brown ; irides, bill, and feet black. 



It is considered by some ornithologists that this bird and 

 the Swift with crescentic markings of white on the breast, 

 which inhabits China and Amoorland, are the same. If this 

 supposition be correct, this species ranges very widely over 

 the surface of the globe. 



FamHy HIRUNDINID^. 



I wish it to be understood that, although I unite the Swifts 

 and the Swallows, I am not unaware of the difference which 

 exists in the structure of these two groups ; but, as I have 

 stated in the 'Birds of Great Britain,' I consider it desir- 

 able that they should follow each other in an arrangement 

 of the birds of a single country. The Swifts being disposed 

 of in their two genera, Clicetura and Cypselus, I proceed 

 with the true Hirundines, three or four forms of which, with 

 many others not Australian, compose the extensive family of 

 the Hirundmid(B. It may not be out of place if I say a few 

 words on the almost general distribution of these aerial birds 

 over the face of the globe. In America, Africa, China, India, the 

 islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and Australia, Swallows 

 and Martins of varied forms are numerous, and species 

 abound ; yet, strange to say, neither Swifts nor Swallows are 

 found in New Zealand, or in any of the islands adjacent to 

 that countrv. 



