ORDER PASSERES. 9'^ 



the marten swallow*. These birds arrive in Savoy towards 

 the middle of April, and depart from the 15th of August ; 

 yet some lingerers are to be found as late as the 10th of 

 October. 



The Hirundo Javanica has been sometimes confounded 

 with our rustica, from which, however, it differs (according 

 to Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield) chiefly in its inferior size; 

 the side-feathers of the tail are also shorter and less slender ; 

 the frontal band is wider, and the ferrugineous colour extends 

 over the breast, instead of the broad black band which distin- 

 guishes ours. It is a native of Australia as well as Java, and 

 the specimens from the former region, in the collection of the 

 Linnasan Society, accord perfectly with M M. Temminck's 

 and Sparman''s figures and descriptions of the Javanese 

 species. To find the same birds in countries so widely remote 

 from each other, is only to be accounted for by their mi- 

 gratory disposition. 



From Mr. Caley's MSS. we extract the following, which is 

 quoted in Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield's description of 

 Australian birds, in the collection of the Linnaean Society. 



" The resting-place^ of these swallows are on the dead boughs 

 of large trees, where I have seen several of them gathered 

 together, in the same manner as European swallows on the 

 roof of a house. I apprehend, however, that it is when their 

 young have taken to flight that this occurs. 



" The earliest period of the year that I noticed the appear- 

 ance of swallows, was on the 12th of July 1803, when I saw 

 two : but I remarked several towards the end of the same 

 month, the following year (1804). The latest period I 

 observed them was on the 30th of May 1806, when a number 

 of them were twittering and flying high in the air. When I 

 have missed them at Paramatta, I have sometimes met with 

 them among the North Rocks, a romantic spot about two 

 miles northward of the former place. 



*' The natives call the swallow Berrin''-nin ; they told me 



