20 Dove, Some Southern S^vallows. [isfjuiy 



but is stingless, and birds take it with impunity, and may thus 

 be wrongfully accused. 



The Wood-Swallow is said by some naturalists to have the 

 habit of hanging together like a swarm of biees when returning 

 from its winter journey, or mustering for migrations ; but for 

 this we cannot vouch.* The general colour is expressed by its 

 specific name^ — sordidits, greyish-brown ; both the wings and tail 

 are edged with white, which adds to the pleasing appearance 

 when on the wing. The nest is generally placed in a spout — 

 that is, a hole in a tree, generally a eucalypt, where a limb has 

 been torn out by the wind or has decayed and fallen from its 

 own weight. The nest is usually formed of fibrous rootlets, 

 twigs, and grasses ; the eggs, three or four in number, are 

 whitish, with dark spots, zoned round the broad end. Its notes 

 are mostly chirps of a reedy tone, not unpleasing, and we may 

 represent them by the words " Phee-phee," " tweet-tweet," 

 " pheet-a-pheet-pheet." 



The Tree and Welcome Swallows have a good deal of resem- 

 blance when seen upon the wing, but the former usually flies at 

 a greater elevation, and lacks the glossy blue back and red 

 throat of the latter. The Tree Swallow or Martin {Petroclielidou 

 uigricaus) makes its appearance with us much later than its con- 

 gener, and takes up its abode among the large trees which 

 abound on the coast. Like Artamus, this bird is fond of a clear- 

 ing in the forest, and often chooses as a nest-site one of the great 

 gums which has been killed by ringing, and in the trunk of 

 which a convenient aperture has been formed by the falling" out 

 of a limb. In our own clearing a pair of these birds nested 

 year by year in a tree which stood lOO yards or so from the 

 cottage, and always in the same aperture, about 60 feet up. 

 There is no actual construction, the eggs (usually three in 

 number, whitish, with red-brown spots) being deposited upon 

 the soft decaying wood at the bottom of the aperture. This 

 Swallow usually hunts through the air at a good elevation — say 

 60 to 80 feet — but occasionally descends much lower, and when 

 the young are fledged they will come and alight on the garden- 

 ground, picking about amongst the straw litter. 



The Welcome Swallow {Hirimdo neoxend) reminds one of the 

 House Martin in the Home countries by its utter fearlessness of 

 man and its fondness for the neighbourhood of his dwellings. If 

 there is a cottage at all handy the little Hirundo will fix its abode 

 against the wall just under the inside corner of the verandah- 

 roof, or on the top of the small ledge formed by the architrave 

 over the window ; should the verandah be lacking, the nest will 

 be placed up under the projecting eaves. As with the House 

 Martin, the structure is open and cup-like, formed of mud, and 



* Well-authenticated cases of these birds clustering are mentioned by Gould, and 

 by more recent writers. Even in captivity Wood-Swallows have been noticed cling- 

 ing together, head downwards, to the underneath top-side of their cage. — Eds. 



