TREE-MARTIN. 
about my house, and always roosted in several willow-trees growing at a dam 
— there must have been some hundreds of them. For nesting purposes they 
generally resort to large dead trees, using their hollow limbs, often in a very 
small hole at an elbow with an entrance on the under part of the branch ; 
sometimes they choose a fairly large hole, but then decrease the size of the 
entrance with the aid of a little mud. It is very rarely that they nest less than 
twenty feet from the ground, mostly very high up, and owing to their habit of 
choosing a rotten branch, I know of no bird of which on the whole the nest 
is more difficult to examine. Although they breed here in hundreds, it is 
very rarely that a nesting hollow is seen which can be reached, most of those 
I have examined having been placed low enough to be reached with the use 
of a long ladder. I have seen birds entering hollows from August till the end 
of the year, but what few sets of eggs I have taken have only been during 
September and October. It is an exceptional thing to see them perched in a 
living tree, they prefer the ‘ ring-barked ’ timber, only resorting to green 
trees for roosting, when they congregate in flocks.” 
Dove in 1908 mentioned : “ There was a great mustering of Tree -Martins 
about the wharves on the Tamar, the birds settling on the rigging of the small 
vessels moored there, also on the piles which have been driven into the swampy 
flat. It is very unusual to see this species in quantity about the town, as it 
usually keeps away in small companies along the river or among the trees of 
the bush. They appeared to have reached northern Tasmania in much larger 
numbers than usual during the past spring and summer, as it was found that 
the Tree Swallow had driven the Welcome Swallows from their nests under 
a verandah, and lined the nests wdth gum leaves, and laid their eggs. This 
proceeding of ousting the Swallow from its mud structure and usurping the 
same for breeding purposes is most unusual with the Tree-Martin, as far as my 
own experience goes. I always found that it bred high up in holes of dead 
gum-trees and never seemed to care for the proximity of a town.” 
Mr. Tom Carter wrote me : “ The Tree-Martin is much the most common 
species of the Swallow family in West Australia. At certain times great 
numbers would be seen about Point Cloates for many consecutive days, as if 
moving from one locality to another. Inland they nested freely in hollow 
spouts of the White Gum trees fringing the water-courses. The breeding- 
season was usually August and September, in which months many nests with 
eggs (usually three) or young were noted. The nesting material was mostly 
of leaves from the gum-trees and various shrubs in considerable quantity.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers recorded then’ occurrence at Melville Island as follows : 
“ Cooper’s Camp. Oct. 5th, 1911. — These birds are fairly numerous along the 
foreshore. Nov. 16th, 1911. — Two were shot out of a flock of about two 
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