117 
Fortunately, however, one of the birds had been shot, and the skin having been forwarded to 
1116 m A r a fieSh condltlon ’ 1 saw at a § lance that we had now to add another bird to our list of species. 
^ ajor W. B. Messengei, to whom I am indebted for this unique specimen, sent me also the 
following notes : — 
ReSpC f ing the Swift 1 shot here > 1 am g lad to be able to furnish you with particulars. One 
evenmg, at about 6 p.m, four strange birds were flying about the camp, evidently in pursuit of insects. 
Iheir flight so reminded me of that of the Swift, that to make sure I shot one and took it to the 
office of the ‘Taranaki Herald.’ I believed it to be an English Swift, but from what I have since 
heard, I conclude that it is an Australian bird. I did not know until I received your letter that 
Swallows had ever been seen in New Zealand.” 
In bringing tins Australian bird before the Zoological Society in October 1839, Mr. Gould 
TJon 6 : ~: lhlS Spe . C1GS is aboUt the size of °yp selus mura rius. I first met with it on the 8th March, 
1839. T hey were in considerable abundance, but flying very high. I succeeded in killing one which 
was immediately pronounced by Mr. Coxen to be new to the colony. On the 22nd I again saw a 
number of these birds hawking over a piece of cleared land at Yarrondi, on the Upper Hunter- 
upon this occasion I obtained six specimens, but have not met with it since.” 
In his account of the species in his ‘ Birds of Australia ’ he adds “ Those I then observed were 
flymg high m the air, and performing immense sweeps and circles, while engaged in the capture of 
insects. I succeeded in killing six or eight individuals, among which were adult examples of both 
sexes ; but I was unable to obtain any particulars as to their habits and economy. It would be 
highly interesting to know whether this bird, like the Swallow, returns annually to spend the months 
of summer in Australia. I think it likely that this may be the case, and that it may have been 
frequently confounded with Acmthylis caudacuta, as I have more than once seen the two species united 
m flocks, hawking together in the cloudless skies, like the Martins and Swallows of England It is 
considered by some ornithologists that this bird and the Swift with crescentic markings of white on 
the breast, which inhabits China and Amoorland, are the same. If this supposition be correct, this 
species ranges very widely over the surface of the globe.” 
The British-Museum collection contains specimens from N. S. Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, 
tape York, Formosa, Penang, Tenasserim, Assam, Japan, China, and Siberia 
I have carefully examined all these examples and can find nothing whatever to justify specific 
separation, although as a rule the birds from India and China have a larger and therefore more 
conspicuous patch of white on the throat. 
The specimen from Japan differs from typical examples in having black shaft-lines on the throat • 
but there is an exactly similar one from Cape York obtained during the voyage of H.M.S. • Battle- 
snake.’ 
There is, however, a bird in immature plumage from the Hume Collection, marked “ Cypselus 
pacijicus , e , Bankasoon,” which may prove to be distinct. It is of appreciably smaller size, the wing 
from the flexure being fully half an inch shorter; the throat-patch is covered with linear brown 
markings, and the whole of the uropygium is greyish white with dark shaft-lines. 
