COLLOCALIA ARBOREA.
Tree Martin.
Dm-rumped Swallow, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 309.
Hirundo pyrrhonota, Lath. MSS.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., Vol. xv. p. 190.
Hirundo nigricans, Vieill. Ency. Meth., Part II. p. 525 ?
Gab-by-kal-lan-goo-rong, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia.
Martin of the Colonists.
T h e specific term o i pyrrhonota having been given to a bird of this group by Vieillot, prior to the publication
of the List o f Australian Birds by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield in the Linnean Transactions, as quoted
above, I have been necessitated to furnish this species with a new appellation, and have selected that of
arborea as indicative o f its habits; for in every part o f Australia that I have visited, it invariably selects the
holes of trees for the purpose of nidification.
It is strictly a summer visitant to Van Diemen’s Land and all the southern portions of Australia, arriving
in August and retiring northwards as autumn approaches.
The Tree Martin is a familiar species, frequenting the streets of the towns in company with the Swallow.
I observed it to be particularly numerous in the streets of Hobart Town, where it arrives early in September;
the more southern and colder situation of the island rendering all migratory birds later in their arrival there.
It breeds during the month o f October in the holes of trees, making no nest, but laying its eggs on the
soft dust generally found in such places : the eggs are from three to five in number, of a pinky white faintly
freckled at the larger end with fine spots of light reddish brown; they are eight lines long by six lines broad.
Its food consists o f insects of various kinds, particularly a species o f small black fly.
Considerable difference exists both in size and in the depth of colouring o f specimens killed in New
South Wales, Swan River and Van Diemen’s Land; but as there exists no distinctive character o f marking,
I am induced to regard them as mere local varieties rather than as distinct species. The Van Diemen’s
race are larger in all their admeasurements, and have the fulvous tint o f the under surface and the band
across the forehead much deeper than in those killed in New South Wales; individuals from the latter
locality again exceed in size those from Western Australia.
Specimens from Van Diemen’s Laud have the forehead crossed by a fulvous band; head, back of the neck,
back and scapularies glossy bluish black ; wings and tail brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts light fulvous;
throat, sides of the neck and flanks light fulvous, with a narrow stripe of dark brown in the centre o f each
feather ; centre of the abdomen nearly white; irides, bill and feet blackish brown.
The figures in the opposite Plate, which are o f the natural size, were taken from two of the varieties
mentioned above; the upper one from a specimen killed in New South Wales, the other two from birds
taken in Van Diemen’s Land.