SWALLOWS. 
43 
a flat surface, but it launches from any little eminence, and 
if it can spring out horizontally, is enabled to fly off, although 
its usual mode of launching is like that of the gannet, by a 
deep curve/^ 
Swallows are everywhere welcomed as harbingers of 
Spring. Which of us has not felt gladdened by the first 
sight of a swallow ! The appearance of these aerial fairies 
is more indicative of the season even than a flower. 
" Spring is coining, thou art come," 
may be said of Wordsworth^s celandine; but spring has 
come when the swallow is seen flying about, and is far ad- 
vanced when the swallow has commenced to build. It is 
pleasing to find that a species, very similar to our Hirundo 
rusticay is welcomed by the colonists of South Australia and 
Van Diemen^s Land as an indication of spring ; Mr. Gould 
has applied to it in consequence the specific name H. neo- 
wena^. In Yan Diemen^s Land it arrives about the middle 
or end of September, and in New South Wales a few strag- 
glers remain during the whole winter. The natural breed- 
ing-places of this species are deep clefts in rocks and caverns, 
but Mr. Gould informs us that since the colonization of 
Australia, this species has, after the fashion of its European 
* Birds of Australia. 
