270 THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA 



Lays its eggs in the holes of trees, making no special nest. 

 The eggs, three to five, are pinky-white faintly freckled at the 

 larger end with fine spots of light reddish-brown. .67 x .5 inch. 



The Fairy Martin. 



Petrochelidon ariel. 



All Australia and Tasmania. 



Head bright rufous, upper surfaces generally deep-blue, lower back 

 and rump mottled creamy white, upper tail-coverts smoky-brown; lores 

 black, sides of face and ear-coverts smoky-brown, cheeks and throat white 

 with minute dusky streaks; breast and abdomen pure white, under tall- 

 coverts white with a smoky tinge; bill blackish-grey, feet olive-grey, iris 

 blackish-brown. Total length 4.6 inches, culmen .3, wing 3.7, tail 1.9, 

 tarsus .4. 



The Fairy Martin is migratory, like the other Swallows, 

 breeding in the south in the spring and early summer. The 

 nests are usually placed in clusters against the vertical sides of 

 a river bank, the sides of a rock or a building, or sometimes to 

 overhanging formations. The nest is long and bottle-shaped 

 with the opening at the end of the neck. It is composed of mud 

 or clay, each portion plastered on to the foundation or to the 

 growing structure by the bill of the bird. It is nearly round, 

 from four to seven inches in diameter, and the spout reaches to 

 even eight or nine inches in length. It is lined with fine grasses 

 and feathers. The nests are usually congregated in some 

 situation near to water, but not actually on the sea coast. Thus 

 we have seen them on the Saltwater River, near Melbourne, at 

 Hunter's Hill, on the Parramatta River, and at Norman Park, 

 a suburb of Brisbane below the city. The parish church at 

 Richmond, situated near the edge of the higher ground which 

 overlooks the alluvial flats, and close to one of the billabongs of 

 the Nepean, has two sides below the roof covered with hundreds 

 of the nests. The birds have but a short distance to fly in order 

 to obtain the mud for the nests, and there is abundance of insect 

 food over the water. As in England, the common Sparrow in 

 some cases challenges successfully the ownership of the nest, 

 and turns out the milder Martins. "In constructing the nests the 

 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." 

 (Gould). The eggs, 4 to 5, white, plain or spotted and blotched 

 with red, and measure .7 x .5 inches. 



