THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
hundred which were perched on a dead tree. This species is much more 
numerous than previously. Dec 10th, 1911. — Not numerous now. Dec. 
16th. — Only a few stragglers left. Jan. 13th, 1912. — None were seen at 
north camp ; and on Feb. 3rd, 1912, back at Cooper’s Camp a few stragglers 
along the foreshore only.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby states : “ Hylochelidon nigricans is in this State every- 
where numerous. In the neighbourhood of the city of Adelaide they have 
taken to nesting in broken ventilating gratings in the walls of the houses, these 
being a good substitute for the hollows of trees. More of this species stay 
with us through the winter than of the Welcome Swallow. In habits this 
bird is more nearly related to that bird than to the preceding species, and the 
separation on account of not having a forked tail seems rather artificial.” 
The subspecific forms of this bird are fairly constant, as though the birds 
migrate these migrations are more or less local and many birds are sporadically 
resident. The original locality whence the bird was described was only New 
Holland, and New South Wales was selected as the restricted locality, as 
Gould, Temminck and others had observed that the Tasmanian birds differed. 
Recently it was noted that the type bird examined by Lesson was exactly 
localised as from Hobart Town, Tasmania, so that a redistribution of names 
was necessary. 
In my “ List ” 1913 I recognised five subspecies and these may still be 
maintained with the characters as diagnosed : 
Hylochelidon nigricans nigricans Vieillot. 
Tasmania. 
Hylochelidon nigricans caleyi Mathews. 
South Queensland to South Australia. 
Hylochelidon nigricans rogersi Mathews. 
Northern Territory and North Queensland. 
Hylochelidon nigricans neglecta Mathews. 
North-west Australia. 
Hylochelidon nigricans distinguenda Mathews. 
South- and mid- West Australia. 
