SPINE-TAILED SWIFT. 157 



CHAPTER CXLII. 



SPINE-TAILED SWIFT. 

 (Choetura caudacuta, Latham.) 



The Spine-tailed Swift is a splendid bird, and in size is 

 nearly half as large again as our illustration. 



The White- rumped Swift is a bird which is frequently 

 seen in company of the one under notice, but the difference 

 at a distance would hardly be detected by any one but a 

 bird observer. 



Unfortunately for us, the Spine-tailed Swift is strictly 

 migratory, reaching here early in November, and staying 

 only till February. Mr. Gould and other observant 

 naturalists inform us that they have never seen one of 

 these birds at rest in Victoria, as they are constantly on 

 the wing, and in search of insects, which they devour in 

 enormous numbers and far beyond ordinary attempts at 

 calculation. They fly with great rapidity, and Gould says 

 that it is possible for a Swift to be hawking for insects on 

 the continent of Australia at one hour, and at the next to 

 be similarly employed across the Bass Straits in Tasmania. 



As another illustration of the rapidity of the flight of this 

 remarkable example of the feathered world, Mr. Hall, in 

 his well-known work on insectivorous birds, states that a 

 Swift has never been known to rest on its feet in Victoria, 

 and only a doubtful one in Australia, and he further says 

 the birds build in China, and can breakfast in Asia and dine 

 in Australia on the same day. Not an insect that 

 I know of can escape when once pursued by these birds, 

 as they fly like a flash, and rarely miss the object of their 

 attention. 



