THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Acanthylis ciris Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 65, 1850. 
Chcetura ciris Gray, Hand!. Gen. Sp. Birds, Vol. I., p. 67, 1869. 
Hirundinapus caudacutus Salvador!, Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov., Vol. XII., p. 320, 1878. 
Chcetura caudacuta caudacuta Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 292, 1912 ; id., List 
Birds Austr., p. 153, 1913. 
Distribution. Queensland ; New South Wales ; Victoria ; Tasmania. 
(Northern Territory : Barnard). (North-west Australia : G. F. Hill). (Accidental 
to Europe). Extra-lunital, breeding in Siberia, Japan or China. 
Adult male. Crown of head, hind-neck, wings, sides of rump, and tail bottle-green with a 
bluish tinge ; mantle and back smoke-brown, much paler in the middle of the latter ; 
inner-webs of the innermost secondaries white ; inner-webs of primary and secondary 
quills brown ; base of fore-head pale drab-grey ; a large triangular throat-patch, includ- 
ing the chin, white as are also the lower flanks and under tail-coverts ; breast, 
abdomen, axillaries, and sides of the body dark soot-brown ; under wing-coverts 
bottle-green ; the greater series and under-surface of quills glistening brown ; lower 
a/Spect of tail shining bottle-green. Eyes hazel ; feet flesh ; bill black. Total length 
225 mm. ; cuhnen 7, wing 209, tail 54, tarsus 19. Figured. Collected at Narrabeen, 
New South Wales, in February, 1892. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nest. Not described. 
Eggs. Clutch two, white 30-5 mm. by 19. 
Breeding-season. June. 
The Spine-tail was one of the nnmeroiis birds described by Latham from 
the drawings made by Watling, which are now preserved in the British 
Museum (Natural History). The description was not at first recognised and 
Stephens renamed it Hirundo fusca, and then, when later he proposed the 
genus Chaeturay he added another name, Chcetura australis. Shortly after- 
ward was published Pallas’ Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., a work which had been 
prepared and printed many years previously, and therein the bird was 
described and named from its breeding locality. A couple of years afterward 
Swainson renamed it, when he published an excellent figure of the species. 
In 1843, when Gray examined the “Watling” drawings, he recognised 
Latham’s species, and since that time the name has been used without any 
complication. 
Watling’s note, the earliest field note on the species, reads : “ This bird, 
about half the natural size, seems to possess, in a great measure, the quahties 
of a Swallow. Its motions are amazingly quick, eager of its prey, which it 
seizes with the rapidity of lightning. Its favourite food is a large locust, 
which at this season is plentiful. It is strongly pounced (as a bird of prey), 
and has a broad flat bill — the tail quills armed with spikes as sharp as a needle.” 
Gould’s notes are worth consideration. “ This noble species, one cf the 
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