SPINE-TAILED SWIFT 205 
darker between the shoulders ; the belly is dark 
brown. 
Beyond the fact that this, or a closely related Swift, 
breeds in clefts in the rocky arches of certain water- 
falls in Japan, we know nothing of the nesting-habits 
of the Spine-tailed Swifts ; we are also completely 
ignorant of the route they follow from Asia to Aus- 
tralia and back, and of where they spend the time 
between their appearances at irregular intervals in 
the summer in different parts of Victoria. 
All we can say is that flocks of Swifts, not massed 
together, but scattered so widely that they may be 
hours passing a given point, flying just about within 
gunshot of the ground, do appear from time to time, 
for example in this district, in the summer ; that 
their appearance is frequently, but not always, coin- 
cident with the passage of a barometric depression; 
and that while the direction of earlier flights varies, 
the last flocks of the season are usually seen travelling 
north-east. They feed, as was proved by Mr. Tom 
Fisher, of Ercildoune (who also states the flocks 
pass south about the second week in January), on 
small black flying beetles and gnats, not on butter- 
flies or such larger insects. And they have never 
been recorded as voluntarily resting. On March 2nd, 
191 2, at Mount Duneed, one of a passing flock struck 
either the telegraph wire or a tree and fell on the 
roadway behind me. I picked it up, and found it 
merely stunned. When released, a few minutes 
later, it flew off unhurt to its companions. 
