WHITE -HUMPED WOOD-SWALLOW. 
abundance was Mosquito, and the other small islands near the mouth of 
the Hunter, and on the borders of the rivers Mokai and Namoi, situated to 
the northward of Liverpool Plains ; in these last-mentioned localities it was 
breeding among the large flooded gum trees bordering the rivers. The 
breeding season commences in September and continues until January, 
during which period at least two broods are reared. In the Christmas week of 
1839, at which time I was on the plains of the interior, in the direction of 
the Namoi, the young progeny of the second brood were perched in pairs 
or threes together, on a dead twig near their nest. They were constantly 
visited and fed by the adults, who were hawking about for insects in great 
numbers, some performing their evolutions above the tops and among the 
branches of the trees, while others were sweeping over the open plain with 
great rapidity of flight, making in their progress through the air the most 
rapid and abrupt turns ; at one moment rising to a considerable altitude, 
and the next descending to within a few feet of the ground, as the insects of 
which they were in pursuit arrested their attention. In the brushes, on the 
contrary, the flight of this bird is more soaring and of a much shorter duration, 
particularly when hawking in the open glades, which frequently teem with 
insect life. When flying near the ground, the white mark on the rump shows 
very conspicuously, and strikingly reminds one of the House Martin of our 
own country (England).” 
Captain S. A. White’s notes read : “ This (to my mind) most beautiful 
bird, both in plumage and flight, is now not at all an uncommon bird on the 
Murray River above Morgan. I say now, because I feel sure some thirty 
years ago the bird did not come below Overland Corner. I was collecting 
on the river in the eighties and for many years afterwards, but never met 
with this Wood-Swallow. In my opinion, this, like another member of the 
family, has come further south in the last few years than they ever did in the 
history of White Man. They are most elegant birds on the wing and as they 
hawk over the dark foliage of the trees along the river bank. I have never 
seen these birds far away from a lake or river. During the Cooper’s Creek 
Expedition I observed these birds along the creek and they were nesting in 
the old mud nests of the Grallina. Upon comparing specimens I cannot 
see any very marked differences between the Cooper’s Creek and River 
Murray birds, the latter being a little darker. Have not seen this bird north 
or west of the Cooper.” 
Mr. Christian has written me : “ Arrives in North Victoria late in 
November and goes again in the middle of February ; in 1907 arrived Nov. 
25 ; in 1908, Oct. 19 ; on Jan. 29, 1909, passed north, and as late as March 18 
saw a pair flying northward ; on Oct. 12, 1909, they returned.” 
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