268 AKTAMID.E. 



situation. During the same month both species visited, and remained to breed, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney, at Belmore and Canterbury, re-appearing again in the two successive years. 

 Since that time, while the White-eyebrowed Wood Swallow has visited the vicinity of the 

 metropolis, and bred there, I have not observed Artamns pevsonatus. 



Gould, who originally described Aiiniiuis pcrsonatus in the " Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society," in 1840, remarks in his Handbook to the Birds of Australia" :— " My knowledge of the 

 range of this species is very limited ; a single specimen was sent me from South Australia, 

 while fine examples were killed by Gilbert in the colony of Swan River. In size and structure 

 it more nearly resembles the Artamns mperciliosus than any other, and the two species form 

 beautiful analogies of each other, one being in all probability confined to the eastern portion of 

 the country and the other to the western." That Gould, during his stay in New South Wales, 

 should miss seeing so common a species is remarkable, and can only be explained by the strictly 

 migratory habits of this Wood Swallow. I have, however, met with it during the late spring 

 months in all the far inland portions of the State I have visited, although it is extremely 

 irregular, and may be absent from the coastal districts for a number of years. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland, of Melbourne, sends me the following note: — " Aiinniiis pei'soiuitus 

 was a stranger near Melbourne until recent years, when it has invariably arrived in company 

 with A. supcrciliosus. Its habits are similar. In October, 1896, I saw flocks, consisting of 

 thousands of these birds only, crossing the Great Desert in a southerly direction. Whilst camped 

 for our midday halt a large flock settled on the scrub through which we were travelling, but as 

 soon as their hunger was appeased they renewed their journey. Next day we saw three flocks 

 all going in the same direction." 



From Adelaide Dr. A. M. Morgan writes me as follows: — " Aiitiiiius pn-soiuitiis periodically 

 visits the southern parts of South Australia, arriving about the beginning of September and 

 commencing to nest almost at once, being always accompanied by A. supcrciliosus. They do not 

 come every year as far south as Adelaide, but during the three years I was at Laura they always 

 put in an appearance there. In 1895 I first noted them on the 8th September flying across the 

 Flinders Range, and on the 15th September found the first nest, but they were not in full 

 swing until the end of October, when, in certain parts of the range, there was scarcely a tree 

 without one or two nests in it. On 2nd November, 1895, I found a nest built in the top of an 

 old one of CoUyriocincla harmonica, and on gth November one built in an old nest of Gymnorhina 

 leuconota, but most of the nests were either built in the stout fork of a tree, or in the top of a 

 hollow branch. The eggs are two or three in number, generally the former. The birds have a 

 bad name in the country districts as bee destroyers, and I am afraid it is deserved. They came 

 down to Adelaide a few years ago in great numbers, and were building in the trees on the park 

 lands, but very few of them were allowed to hatch their young there. However, they bred 

 freely near the coast, and I saw great numbers of them nesting in the tea-tree at the Grange, 

 about seven or eight miles west of the city, in i8gg. I also found them breeding in numbers at 

 the Finnis at the end of October ; most of the nests had young birds at that date." 



From Western Australia Mr. Charles G. Gibson writes me as follows : — " At Lake Austin 

 in August, 1903, a flock of about thirty Artamns pcrsonatus arrived about the end of the month, 

 and took up their abode half a mile away from my camp, where there was surface water. They 

 commenced to build almost at once, and on the and September I found two very frail nests, 

 composed of green wiry grass, in low bushes, each containing three fresh eggs. On the 5th 

 September I found another in a very exposed situation, on a broken limb of a dead Mulga bush, 

 also containing three fresh eggs. All three nests were built near one another, and there were 

 probably more, but I had not the spare time to look for them." 



Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. I., p. 150 (1S65). 



