ARTAMUS. 255 



the more public and exposed positions. Of the exposed sites selected for nests may be quoted — 

 the cross-bar of a daily used stockyard gate, scaffold poles round a new building, rosebush within 

 a foot of garden path used every half hour, upright on wire suspension bridge where thousands 

 of sheep crossed during the week, mortice holes in a gate post on an hourly used track. 

 However, the favourite haunt of A. supcniliosus while in this locality is along the banks of the 

 river, where the tall and spreading Casuarina makes a fairly secure nesting place. In the breeding 

 season the bird is very noisy and pugnacious, attempting to drive off all other birds from the 

 vicinity of its young. During the summer of 1907 a pair of young Laughing Jackasses, being 

 reared in the garden here as pets, were fed regularly by their parents upon half-fledged Wood 

 Swallows, sometimes as many as six per day being used for this purpose." 



Writing me from Glanmire, near Bathurst, New South Wales, Mr. A. E. Ivatt remarks: — 

 " I saw a large flock of Artamus superciliosus and A. pcrsonatus, which contained five hundred or 

 more birds ; they stayed here one day, and then disappeared. On three occasions I saw large 

 flocks of these birds during December, 1896, passing towards the north." 



From Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales, Mr. Thos. P. Austin sends me the 

 following notes : — " Artamus superciliosus is a migratory species in this district, arriving during 

 spring in flocks of thousands and accompanied by A. pei'sonatus. The only difference in their 

 habits is that the latter seldom breeds here. Of all the many useful birds we have in Australia, 

 with the exception of Carphibis spinicollis, I must give first place to these beautiful little creatures. 

 Just when large patches of grasshoppers are spreading away from where they have lately been 

 hatched, down come large flocks of these birds, and the number of grasshoppers destroyed by 

 them each day must be very many millions, consequently this great pest is kept in check by our 

 little friends far more than the average man upon the land realizes. When these two species 

 are travelling from one district to another, they appear to fly at a great height; often upon a 

 calm day in the early spring have I heard their familiar notes, and could only just distinguish 

 large flocks overhead." 



At Yandembah Station, near Booligal, New South Wales, the late Mr. K. H. Bennett 

 noted the arrival of large flocks of Artamus superciliosus in company with A. pcrsonatus, on the 

 23rd August, 1889, a most unusual time, also accompanied by a few A. sordidus, a species at all 

 times rare in the district. 



From Broken Hill, South-western New South Wales, Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me : — 

 " Did you notice that some one was trying to divide the migratory birds Artamus pcrsonatus and 

 A. superciliosus which he found breeding in the Alexandra District, in the Northern Territory 

 of South Australia, which is not far from Cloncurry, just across the border of Northern 

 Queensland, into sub-species .'' Both of these essentially migratory species cannot be influenced 

 by local conditions, for I take it that the birds of these two species shot at Alexandra would be 

 the same as birds that migrate down to New South Wales and \'ictoria, because they move 

 from north to south every year. Their movements certainly depend upon the seasons, still 

 they always migrate, whereas I do not think that Artauius mclanops ever does : nor is it gregarious 

 like the other two species mentioned. Much has to be settled yet as to the northern limits of the 

 migratory movements of A. superciliosus and A. pcrsonatus." 



With a large series of these birds before me, I quite agree with Dr. Macgillivray that the 

 separation was unnecessary ; also those from A . mclanops and of Ptilotis sonora.'''' The latter agrees 

 precisely in colour and measurements with a bird I shot at Moree, in Northern New South 

 Wales. As I have frequently pointed out, many birds from the hot and arid districts of Northern 

 Australia have a bleached and washed out appearance compared with specimens from Southern 

 Australia. 



* " Ibis," 1907, pp. 409-10, 412. 



