1494 Birds. 



" Acanthylis caudacuta, Australian Spine-tailed Swallow. 



" Hirundo caudacuta, Lath. Tnd. Orn. Supp. p. 57. sp. 1. Lath. 

 Gen. Hist. vol. vii. p. 307. Vieill. 2nd. edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. 

 Nat. torn. xiv. p. 535, and Ency. Meth. Orn. pt. ii. p. 531. 



"Needle-tailed Swallow? Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp. vol. ii. p. 307. 

 Steph. Cont. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. x. p. 133. 



" Pin-tailed Swallow, Lath. Gen. Hist. vol. vii. p. 308. 



" Chcetura australis, Steph. Cont. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. 

 p. 76. 



" Hirundo pacifica, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. p. 58. Vieill. 2nd. edit, 

 du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. torn. xiv. p. 511, and Ency. Meth. Orn. pt. 

 ii. p. 529. 



"New Holland Swallow? Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp. vol. ii. p. 259. 

 Steph. Cont. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. x. p. 132. Lath. Gen. Hist. vol. 

 vii. p. 308. 



" Chwtura macroptera, Swains. Zool. 111. 2nd. series.pl. 42. Gould's 

 ' Birds of Australia,' pt. ii. cancelled. 



"This noble species, the largest of the Hirundinidae yet discovered, 

 is a summer visitant of the eastern portion of Australia, proceeding as 

 far south as Van Diemen's land, but its visits to this island are not so 

 regular as to New South Wales, and its stay in these southern lati- 

 tudes is never protracted. The months of January and February are 

 those in which it has been most frequently observed in Van Diemen's 

 Land, where it simultaneously appears in large flocks, which, after 

 spending a few days, disappear as suddenly as they arrive. 1 am not 

 aware of its having been observed in Western Australia, neither has it 

 occurred in any of the collections formed at Port Essington. 



" The keel or breast-bone of this species is more than ordinarily 

 deep, and the pectoral muscles more developed than in any other 

 bird of its weight with which I am acquainted. Its whole form is es- 

 pecially and beautifully adapted for aerial progression, and, as its 

 lengthened wings would lead us to imagine, its power of flight, both 

 for rapidity and extension, is truly amazing; hence it readily passes 

 from one part of the country to another, and, if so disposed, may be 

 engaged in hawking for flies on the continent of Australia at one 

 moment, and in half an hour be similarly employed in Van Diemen's 

 Land. 



" So exclusively is this bird a tenant of the air, that I never in any 

 instance saw it perch, and but rarely sufficiently near the earth to ad- 

 mit of a successful shot ; it is only late in the evening and during 

 lowering weather that such an object can be accomplished. With the 



