THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Adult male. Hinder crown, hind-neck, back, upper tail-coverts, scapulars, and upper 
wing-coverts glossy blue-black ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts and flight-quills 
dark brown, the last paler on the inner-webs and some of the innermost secondaries 
tipped with white ; tail also dark brown marked with white on the inner-webs of 
the outer feathers ; a spot in front of the eye blackish ; fore-head rufous ; cheeks, 
throat, and fore-neck also rufous but paler than the fore-head ; abdomen and 
under tail-coverts whitish with bluish-black subterminal marks on the latter ; 
axillaries grey ; sides of the body and under wing-coverts greyish-brown ; flight- 
quills below pale brown ; lower aspect of tail also pale brown marked with white 
on the inner-webs of the outer feathers, the same as on its upper-surface. Bill, 
eyes and feet black. Total length 150 mm. ; culmen 7, wing 109, tail 83, tarsus 
11. Figured. Collected at Somerville, Victoria, on the 15th of April, 1909. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature. Are similarly marked, but not so pronounced. 
N est. The usual swallow kind, made of mud and grass and lined with feathers. 
Eggs. Clutch, three to five. White, spotted, more at the larger end, with reddish-brown 
and lavender. 18-19 mm. by 14. 
Breeding -season. August to December and even some months of the next year. 
Watling does not appear to have painted this common bird, so that when 
Vigors and Horsfield met with it in the collection of the Linnean Society 
they accredited it to Sparrman’s H. javanica, writing : “ We have been led 
into a more detailed description of this bird than we usually give to an 
already described species, in order to point out the differences of its characters 
from those of our European Hir. rustica, with which it has been generally 
confounded. The chief distinction is in its inferior size ; in the side feathers 
of the tail being shorter, and at the same time less gracile ; in the frontal 
band being wider and in the ferruginous colour extending over the breast, in 
place of the broad black band which characterises the European species. Our 
New Holland specimens accord accurately with the figures and descriptions of 
this species given by MM. Sparmann and Temminck from Javanese specimens. 
The migratory habits of these birds account for their wide dispersion.” 
In Mr. Caley’s MSS. we find the following observations on these birds : 
“ The resting-places of these Swallows are on dead boughs of large trees, where 
I have seen several of them gathered together, in the same manner as European 
Swallows , on the roof of a house. I apprehend, however, that it is when 
their young have taken to flight when this occurs. The earliest period of 
the year that I noticed the appearance of Swallows was on the 12th of July, 
1803, when I saw two ; but I remarked several towards the end of the same 
month in the following year (1804). The latest period I observed them was 
on the 30th of May, 1806, when a number of them were twittering and flying 
high in the air. When I have missed them at Parramatta, I have some- 
times met with them among the north rocks, a romantic spot about two 
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