WHITE-RUMPED SWIFT. 
primary and secondary quills pale brown, secondaries slightly edged with white ; rump 
white, head not quite so dark as the back with slight pale edges to the feathers ; a 
narrow whitish line above the eye ; sides of face and sides of throat brown, the feathers 
slightly edged with w'hite ; throat and fore-neck white ; entire under-surface 
blackish, with white edges to the feathers ; under wing-coverts brown with white 
or bufEy-white tips to the feathers ; under-surface of quills and lower aspect of tad 
glossy brown. Eyes brown ; feet and tarsus brown ; bill black. Total length 185 
mm.; cuhnen?, wing 178, tail 80, tarsus 12. Figured. Collected at Point Torment, 
North-west Australia, on the 10th of March, 1911. 
Adult male. Similar to the adult female. 
Nest and Eggs. Not authenticated. 
This species has a similar history to that of the preceding, being described 
by Latham from a “ Watling ” drawing. Then Pallas described it from its 
northern limit, while Gould and Jardine named it again from Austraha ; the 
correct name, which has since been consistently used, being recorded in 
1843. 
It belongs to the true Swifts, and is apparently so alike that Pallas only 
ranged it as a variety of the typical Swift. It is thus peculiar that the 
Watling drawing should have been named by Latham, “ New Holland 
Swallow,” while Watling observed : “ This is the supposed female of No. 1,” 
that is, the Spine-tail. 
Gould wrote : “ As I had never seen or heard of a true Swift in Australia, 
I was no less surprised than gratified when I discovered this species to be 
tolerably numerous on the Upper Hunter, during my first visit to that district 
in 1838. Those I then observed were flying high in 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 the Acanthylis caudacuta, as I have more 
than once seen the two species united in 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.” 
Mr. Frank Littler wrote me : “ Some haH a dozen birds were seen on 
Feb. 13, 1902, in company with a number of Spine-tailed Swifts, just at 
dusk, about South Launceston. They flew so low that I had no difficulty 
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