BLACK AND WHITE SWALLOW. 
numbers, twenty being the most I ever saw at one time. Though here at all 
seasons, their appearance is very irregular and uncertain ; they are here 
to-day and gone to-morrow, never staying long enough to nest. I believe there 
is the same migratory movement with these birds as there is with Petrochelidon 
ariel and Ginclorhamphus cruralis ; that is, our summer residents go north 
at the approach of winter, their place being taken here by birds from the 
south. I have no record of ever having seen Black and White Swallows in 
either March or September ; those are the two intervals.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has given me the following note : “ The Black and 
White Swallow is fairly common in the mid -west, but rare in South-west 
Australia. Sometimes they are seen for a few days in considerable numbers, 
as if on migration to a fresh locality. They breed in small colonies in holes 
excavated in the steep, sandy banks of rivers, etc. There are many such 
colonies on the Lower Gascoyne River. The nesting cavity is usually three 
feet, and often more, from the entrance. Nesting material bulky, formed of 
grass, small twigs and long leaves of various species of shrubs. August and 
September seem to be the main nesting months, and two or three eggs a clutch. 
A few pairs used to breed on high sandstone cliffs on the beach south of Point 
Cloates. It surprised me that birds with such feeble beaks could excavate 
holes in such hard material, as it meant using a strong sheath knife with 
considerable expenditure of labour and time to open out a nest for examina- 
tion. Possibly a soft stratum is utilised by them, but such places were not 
apparent. On Sept. 18th, 1901, two nests were found close to my shearing 
shed at Point Cloates in the face of a small sand hummock not three feet in 
height on the edge of a road. They contained young. This species was only 
twice observed at Broome Hill, viz., on April 3rd, 1906, and August 12th, 
1910, a few only flying at a great elevation.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby’s note reads : “ In August 1901 at a place on the 
Kalgoorlie Goldfields called Kanowna, the Black and White Swallow was 
numeious ; they had bored holes into the sides of the prospecting shafts, the 
nights being very cold, and the birds evidently crowded into these holes for 
warmth and shelter, as thirteen came out of one hole. The Eastern form is 
widely distributed throughout South Australia. On the 14th Sept., 1917, 
we caught several of these swallows out of their nesting -holes after dark at 
Pungonda, about twenty-five miles south of Renmark. As there were 
several birds of both sexes in the same hole it is evident that they were using 
them for shelter only. Is it not possible that they make them for shelters 
as well as for nesting ? Nests examined on the 23rd October, 1909, at Mannum 
in this State contained fresh eggs, so possibly the 14th September was a little 
early for nesting.” 
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