260 



ARTAMID.E. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, hut having the under tail-coverts more broadly 

 edged and tipped with white. 



Distribution — New South Wales, South AustraHa, \\'estern AustraHa. 



^l^HE Black-faced Wood Swallow is a permanent resident in the western portions of New 

 -L South Wales. It is a common species, and is met with in pairs or small flocks almost 

 everywhere, and frequently many miles away from timber. Wire fences and telegraph wires 

 crossing the plains are favourite perching places, from which it often sallies forth to capture 

 some passing insect, and return again to the same place. In cold wet weather these birds at 

 night have a habit, similar to other members of the genus, of hanging in clusters on the sheltered 

 side, or in a hollow trunk of a tree. 



Stomachs of specimens examined contained only the remains of insects. 



One of the most perplexing problems I have attempted to solve, is the separation by any 

 constant character of the three described species of black-faced Artami inhabiting Australia. 

 In the large series of specimens now before me from all parts of Australia they frequent, it 

 whould be easy to pick out certain specimens typical of each of the described species. According 

 to Dr. R. B. Sharpe in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, "^•= Artamus cincreus, 

 Vieillot, is an inhabitant of Western Australia; A. mdaiwps, Gould, South Australia; and A. 

 venustns, Sharpe, North-western Australia. Two of the characters, however, given for the 

 separation of ^. mclanops from A. cinen-us, its smaller size and the under tail coverts tipped with 

 white, are of little, if any value. The wing-measurement given of A. mdmwps is 4-9 inches, 

 and that of A.ciuei'cus only 4'g5 inches. Writing earlier on the genus Avtamns in Rowley's 

 " Ornithological Miscellany," | Dr. Sharpe remarks: " Artamus alhiventi'is is doubtfully distinct 

 from A. cinereus, from which A. melanops, Gould, will be also with difficulty separated." . . . 

 "Artamus alhivcntris is a species with which I am unacquainted; the only specimen in the museum 

 referred to by the late Mr. G. R. Gray appears to be only A. vincrcus, with a little more white 

 on the under tail-coverts, possibly a variable character." Of Artamus melanops Dr. Sharpe writes : 

 " I am very doubtful about the species, as we have in the Museum two specimens from Cape 

 York, received from Mr. Gould as his Artamus melanops, and these two individuals I can hardly 

 separate from A. cinereus. They have a little more black on the face and narrower white edgings 

 to the under tail-coverts ; this appears to be the best character, but, as I have already hinted, it 

 appears to be somewhat variable. At the same time this species is so little known that perhaps 

 A. venustus, nob., may turn out to be only the adult stage." 



Not only are the white tips or edgings of the under tail-coverts of the Black-faced Artami 

 a variable character, as suggested by Dr. Sharpe, but they are also a sexual one, the female, as 

 a rule, always having a larger amount of white on the under tail-coverts than the male. Of 

 typical adult males of Artamus melanops obtained in South Australia, the under tail-coverts are 

 black, or the extreme tips of the longest ones only white ; specimens obtained in South-western 

 New South Wales are similar, a few being more broadly edged with white in some examples. 

 Specimens procured at Coonamble vary from the typical A. melanops in having the under surface 

 of a distinct ashy-grey, not brown, and the under tail-coverts broadly margined with white. 

 .\n adult male obtained by me farther to the north-east, at Narrabri, has the basal half of the 

 under tail-coverts black, and the apical half white. This specimen is intermediate between A. 

 melanops and A . alhiventris. An adult male I shot at the nest at Moree, eighty miles farther 

 north, the following year is similar, but the female has the under tail-coverts pure white, and is 

 similar to another specimen in the Australian Museum collection labelled " Artamus alhivcntris. 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Mr. K. Broadbent, 1874." Artamus melanops thus appears to 

 completely intergrade with A . alhiventris. Specimens of the latter from the Dawson River, 



Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XIII., p. 17 (1890). f Orn. Miscl., Vol. III., pp. iSo. 196, 198 (187S). 



