HIRUNDO NEOXENA, Gould.
Welcome Swallow.
Hirundo Javanica, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 191.
New Holland Swallow, Griffith’s Edit. Cuv. Amm. King., Aves, vol. vii. p. 96; and H. pacifica, Ibid., pi. not numbered.
Run-m-meet, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
Ber-rin-nin, Aborigines of New South Wales.
L i k e many other Australian birds, this species has been considered to be identical with another or others
described by the older writers. Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, in their “ List o f Australian Birds,” published
in the fifteenth volume of the Linnean Transactions, state that they “ have been led into a more detailed
description of this species, in order to point out the differences of its characters from those o f our European
species Hir. rustica, with which it has been generally confounded but while they have very clearly pointed
out the distinctive characters of the two species, they have, in my opinion, departed from their usual
accuracy in considering it to be identical with the bird figured by Sparmann in the “ Museum Carlsonianum”
under the name of Hirundo Jamnica, which is there represented with a square tail, and which, if drawn
correctly, is not only specifically but generically distinct. I have also compared specimens of the Australian
Swallow with the Hirondelle Orientale o f M. Temminck’s “ Planches Coloriées,” with which species
it was likewise considered to be identical by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, but from which also I conceive it
to be distinct. On the contrary, the Swallow figured in Griffith’s edition o f Cuvier’s “ Animal Kingdom”
is certainly the Australian bird ; but as the specific term there given had been previously employed by
Sparmann, as mentioned above, the necessity o f a new name for the present species has been forced upon me;
and that o f neoocena has suggested itself as appropriate, from the circumstance o f its appearance throughout
the whole o f the southern portions of Australia being hailed as a welcome indication o f the approach o f
spring, and its arrival there associated with precisely the same ideas as those popularly entertained respecting
our own pretty Swallow in Europe. The two species are in fact beautiful representatives o f each other, and
assimilate not only in their migratory movements, but also most closely in their whole habits, actions and
economy. It arrives in Van Diemen s Land about the middle or end o f September, and after rearing at
least two broods departs again northwards in March ; but it is evident that the migratory movement o f the
Swallow, and doubtless that o f all other birds, is regulated entirely by the temperature and the more or less
abundant supply of food necessary for its existence ; for I found that in New South Wales, and every country
in Australia within the same latitude, it arrived much earlier and departed considerably later than in Van
Diemen’s Land ; and Mr. Caley, who resided in New South Wales for several years, and whose valuable
notes on the birds of that part o f the country have been so often quoted, states that “ the earliest period
o f the year that I noticed the appearance of Swallows was on the 12th of July 1803, when I saw two • but
I remarked several towards the end of the same month in the following year (1804). The latest period I
observed them was on the 30th of May 1806, when a number of them were twittering and flying high in
the air. When I missed them at Paramatta, I have sometimes met with them among the north rocks, a
romantic spot about, two miles to the northward of the former place.” A few stragglers remain in New
South Wales during the whole of the winter, but their numbers cannot be for a moment compared with
those to be observed in the summer, and which during the colder months have wended their way to a
warmer and more congenial climate, where insect life is sufficiently abundant for the support o f so great
a multitude. I have never been able to trace this bird very far to the north ; it certainly does not visit
Java, nor I believe New Guinea, neither have I yet seen it from Port Essington or any part o f the north
coast, although it is probable that its range does extend thus far.
The natural breeding-places of this bird are the deep clefts of rocks and dark caverns, but since the
colonization o f Australia it has in a remarkable degree imitated its European prototype, by selecting for the
site of its nest, the smoky chimneys, the chambers of mills and out-houses, or the corner o f a shady verandah •
the nest is also similarly constructed, being open at the top, formed o f mud or clay, intermingled with grass
or straw to bind it firmly together, and lined first with a layer of fine grasses and then with feathers. The
shape of the nest depends upon the situation in which it is built, but it generally assumes a rounded form
in front. The eggs are usually four in number, o f a lengthened form ; the ground colour pinky white, with
numerous fine spots of purplish brown, the interspaces with specks of light greyish brown, assuming in
some instances the form o f a zone at the larger end ; they are from eight to nine lines long by six lines
broad. At Swan River the breeding-season is in September and October.
The food consists o f small flies and other insects.
Forehead, chin, throat and chest rust-red ; head, back of the neck, back, scapularies, wing-coverts, rump
and lipper tail-coverts deep steel-blue ; wings and tail blackish brown, all but the two centre feathers o f the
latter with an oblique mark of white on the inner web ; under surface very pale brown ; under tail-coverts
pale brown passing into an irregular crescent-sliaped mark near the extremity and tipped with white ; irides
dark brown ; bill and legs black.
The figures are those o f a male and female o f the natural size.