256 ARTAMIDiE. 



From Melbourne Mr. G. A. Keartland sends me the following notes :— " Artanms superciliosus 

 is an occasional visitor to this district, generally arriving in flocks about November. It is 

 regarded as the harbinger of a hot summer. Immediately they arrive they commence building 

 their nests, which are placed in all sorts of trees and bushes, or even on top of a stump or posr. 

 During their stay they render valuable service to the orchardist by destroying vast quantities of 

 grasshoppers, moths and other insects. Soon after the young ones are strong enough, they 

 assemble in a large flock and migrate northwards. Sometimes we do not see them for five or 

 six years, but occasionally they come two years in succession. In September, 1896, in the 

 Great Desert of North Western Australia, I saw immense flocks of these birds, sometimes by 

 themselves, and sometimes in company with A. pcrsonatits, migrating southwards. At Brocktnan's 

 Creek, Western Australia, where we stayed a month, a patch of scrub near our camp was 

 occupied by three species, Artamus iupei'dliosus, A. mdanops and A. pcrsonatus. 



From South Australia Mr. Edwin Ashby sends me the following notes : — " Aiiamits 

 superciliosus is an irregular visitor to the neighbourhood of Adelaide, but when it does arrive it is 

 always in company with A. personatus. They appeared in large numbers round Blackwood on 

 September 14th, 1907, a very hot north-windy day, and were hawking for insects in hundreds, 

 perhaps one might be within the mark in saying thousands. Three days later they had all 

 disappeared, and turned up again in considerable numbers at the end of October, when they 

 commenced nesting in real earnest. At the present time I know of several nests in which the 

 young are almost fledged. Some nests are in most exposed positions ; one just outside my fence 

 is in a gum sapling with only a few tufts of leaves, nest four feet from the ground. One year, when 

 the above species were absent from the neighbourhood of Adelaide. I met with them nesting two 

 hundred miles north of Nackara, on the Broken Hill line. It would be most interesting to find 

 out their mo\ements when absent from our district." 



The nest is irregularly formed externally of thin twigs, the inside, which is cup-shaped 

 consisting chiefly of wiry rootlets, pliant plant stems, and dead grass stems, the materials varying 

 according to the locality in which it is found. An average nest measures externally four inches 

 and a half in diameter by two inches and three-quarters in depth, and the inner cup two inches 

 and a half in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. Little or no preference is shown in the 

 selection of a nesting site; frequently the nest is placed at the junction of a horizontal or 

 upright fork of a tree, within a few feet of the ground ; between a piece of loose bark and the 

 trunk of a tree, or in the mortice hole of a gate post. I have also found them on the top of the 

 broad flat fronds of the Norfolk Island Pines, in rose bushes, fruit trees, grape vines, and in 

 many kinds of nati\e and acclimatised shrubs. 



The e^.^s are usually two or three in number for a sitting, although at 'Moree, in November 

 1897, only a single egg was deposited in most of the nests I examined. One of the latter I had 

 under observation, only a few feet from my window, was lined entirely with green clover leaves, 

 and the single egg it contained was sat upon during the greater part of the day by the male, 

 who, I have frequently observed, more than takes his share in the duties of incubation. 

 The eo'c's are oval, rounded oval, or elongate oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 

 smooth and slightly lustrous. In ground colour they vary from a whity-brown to a light 

 greenish-grey, which is spotted and blotched with pale umber, and a few underlying markings 

 of slaty-grey, principally upon the larger end, where in some instances they form well-defined 

 bands of confluent markings. A set of three taken at Canterbury measures: — Length (A) 

 0-92 X 0-68 inches; (B) o-g x o-68 inches; (0)0-9 ^ 07 inches. A set of two, taken at Belmore 

 on the 15th November, 1895, measures: — Length (A) o-86 x 0-67 inches; (B) 0-85 x 0-67 

 inches. 



.\ set of three taken by Mr. Dean Swift, at Belmore, on the ist December, 1899, ^'so 

 contained an egg of the Rufous-tailed Bronze Cuckoo, Lamprococcyx hasalis. This is an unusual 



