Swallow of Australia ; but ou comparing the latter species with the Cliff-Swallow of 

 America, which belongs to the genus Petrochelidon, we were unable to perceive any 

 generic difference, and we have therefore united them. The Australian species has 

 but one near ally, the P. fluvicola of India, and these two species form a section of the 

 genus Petrochelidon, distinguished by their red heads. 



Mr. E. P. Ramsay gives the range of the species as follows — from South Australia 

 and Victoria to New South Wales, and thence northwards along the east coast to the 

 neighbourhood of Port Denison. As will be seen below, Mr. Gould records it from 

 Western Australia, and the late Mr. G. R. Gray, in the 'Hand-list of Birds,' has given 

 the Aru Islands as a habitat of the species. This latter record is justly discredited by 

 Count Salvadori in his work on the avifauna of New Guinea. 



Mr. Gould gives the following account of the species in his ' Handbook ' : — " The 

 Fairy Martin is dispersed over all the southern portions of Australia, and, like every 

 other member of the genus, it is strictly migratory. It usually arrives in the month of 

 August, and departs again in February or March ; during this interval it rears two or 

 three broods. The Fairy Martin, unlike the favourite Swallow of the Australians, 

 although enjoying a most extensive range, appears to have an antipathy to the country 

 near the sea, for neither in New South Wales nor at Swan River have I ever heard of its 

 approaching the coast-line nearer than twenty miles ; hence, while I never observed it at 

 Sydney, the town of Maitland on the Hunter is annually visited by it in great numbers. 

 In Western Australia it is common between Northam and York, while the towns of 

 Perth and Fremantle on the coast are, like Sydney, unfavoured by its presence. I 

 observed it throughout the district of the Upper Hunter, as well as in every part of the 

 interior, breeding in various localities, wherever suitable situations presented themselves. 

 Sometimes their nests are constructed in the cavities of decayed trees ; while not unfre- 

 quently clusters of them are attached to the perpendicular banks of rivers, the sides of 

 rocks, &c, generally in the vicinity of water. The long bottle-shaped nest is composed of 

 mud or clay, and, like that of our Common Martin, is only worked at in the morning 

 and evening, unless the day be wet or lowery. In the construction of the nest these birds 

 appear to work in small companies, six or seven assisting in the formation of each nest, 

 one remaining within and receiving the mud brought by the others in their mouths. In 

 shape these nests are nearly round, but vary in size from four to six or seven inches in 

 diameter, the spouts of some being eight or nine inches in length. When built on the 

 sides of rocks or in the hollows of trees, they are placed without any regular order, in 

 clusters of thirty or forty together, some with their spouts inclining downwards, others 

 at right angles, &c. ; they are lined with feathers and fine grasses. The eggs, which are 

 four or five in number, are sometimes white, at others spotted and blotched with red ; 

 -ny in. long by h in. broad." 



Mr. E. P. Ramsay, in his " Notes on Birds Breeding in the Neighbourhood of 

 Sydney," alludes to this species under the heading of Chelidon arborea (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 299). This slip of the pen he corrects in the next volume of the ' Ibis ' (18G6, p. 127). 



