130 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Appearing in January or February, and a perfect master of 

 flight, the short neck lending special aid to the dart-like quickness 

 in its turnings. The breadth from tip to tip of wings is greater 

 than the length of bird. 



12. Welcome Swallow (Hirimdo neoxena, Gould), W, 



This is indeed a genuine insectivorous bird, for if you watch 

 it hawking (as there is little doubt you often have done) the 

 innumerable number of flies it captures totals hundreds, 

 possibly thousands, in a day if the weather is favourable. Ever 

 on the wing in daylight, feeding on the wing, exercising itself 

 while on the wing, until in August when it alights on the damp 

 side of a waterhole to obtain a first brick to form the foundation 

 of its seasonal home for the family weal during September and 

 the following months. 



In a barn, attached to the roof is a nest with fibrous roots 

 pendent to a distance of eighteen inches, and moving in the 

 gentle breeze coming from the open door. The nest is coarsely 

 built, and somewhat on a new principle. The lower half of the 

 nest is composed primarily of roots, with earth more like a 

 binder than the bound, and the upper half of mud, as is usual 

 with the whole. The roof is a mass of hanging spider webs, new 

 and disordered. In this a house is built to avoid detection ; 

 certainly it bears a resemblance to surroundings, but its 

 primitiveness is not a shield of sufficient cover. In September 

 last at Swan Hill, overhanging the river, I noticed a tree spout con- 

 taining a nest with fresh eggs. This is an unusual building place. 



A second species in the same devouring family is 



13. Fairy Martin (Lagenoplastes ariel, Gould). 



A colony completed its hamlet by the middle of November. 

 To learn something I broke off the neck of one nest, and found 

 a few minutes later the birds, by unity, had replaced a funnel 

 similar to the broken one. The birds return to the nesting place 

 of last year, and build among the dilapidated remains. In 

 October of 1894 the new were tenanted, the old "to let." 



The well-known member to us in the Alcedinidae is 

 14. — Great Brown Kingfisher {Dacelo gigas, Bodd), W.* 

 One or two digestive feats by this bird may be of interest, for 

 it is not an epicure. 



A neighbour has a bird which has shown a weakness for a 

 variety of animate things, besides home luxuries. A bandicoot 

 as large as itself was the first trial of strength I knew of. The 

 bird occupied three-quarters of an hour in pounding it to a jelly 

 appearance ; then the anterior end disappeared. A day was 

 occupied in the digestion and recovery. A rat later in the week 

 was similarly pounded and devoured whole, or, to be correct, 

 devoured as a whole. Within the same month of experiments, 



