WOOD-SWALLOW. 
twittering softly. Presently, as one bird — no doubt at a signal from 
the leader — the whole flock rose and flew off into the higher atmosphere, 
where they hawked for insects during the remainder of the day. An hour 
or two later, the clouds rolled away and the day was sunny and warm. While 
examining a squeaking young one, I have been attacked by the Wood- 
Swallows in force, several pairs of birds arriving to drive me away from 
the nest. They make quick darts at the intruder, but both sexes being of 
gentle disposition, are not persistent in their attack. I found two young 
about a week old which had the irides brown, gape lemon-yellow, bill light 
yellow, legs blueish ; feathers along head and back brown, just breaking ; 
primaries and secondaries cased in blue quills, tail-quills minute. Three species, 
A. cyanopterus, C. superciliosus and G. personatus are generally found nesting 
in the same clump of timber, the last named being here the rarest of the three.” 
Mr. Tom Tregellas also wrote : “ I was out at Sassafras and noticed 
a large cluster of W T ood-S wallows on the leeside of a rough-barked, just dead 
box tree. Getting close for examination I had a good look at them, and 
found that each bird clung to the bark alone as close to its neighbour as 
possible, but not one of them clung to its neighbour . I then disturbed them 
and watched them re-form into another cluster with the same result. After 
satisfying myself completely that my observations were correct I fired at the 
clump and killed six birds as specimens, all of which on skinning proved 
to be females. This, then, gives rise to another question. Were they all 
females in the swarm, and is it only the females that swarm ? The birds 
are in great plenty here and remain with us most of the year, some of them, 
in fact, never leaving at all.” 
Mr. H. S. Dove wrote me : “ This Wood-Swallow musters every autumn 
in some paddocks near the beach at this place and remains about there for 
a few weeks before crossing the Straits to the mainland. A large 
proportion of these are young birds, the plumage being browner and more 
mottled than with the old. Parties of the young are very fond of sitting 
on a horizontal pine branch, snuggling up together in twos and threes like 
Lovebirds and thus protecting each other against the cool winds. This 
season I first noticed the mustering on 11th March, and they were there still 
on 1st April ; they sit about on the trees and posts and fences, sailing thence 
every now and then to the ground for an insect, sometimes remaining there 
for a time, at others returning directly to the perch with their quarry. 
Grasshoppers are very plentiful and these appear to form a large portion 
of their sustenance ; at this period almost all the food is obtained on the 
ground. I noticed one fly to its perch with a grasshopper, a part of which 
(the head apparently) it rejected, then gulped down the rest, legs and all.” 
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