ARTAMUS. 261 



Herbert River, and Rockingham Bay, Queensland, have the lower portion of the abdomen and 

 the vent also white, like the under tail-coverts, although there are some black feathers on the 

 vent of the specimen from the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



Specimens in the collection, and others lent by the Trustees of the South Australian Museum, 

 including the co-type of Avtamus melanops, Gould, labelled " St. a'Becket's Pool, Lat. 28° 30', 

 23rd August, 1863," may be distinguished by their paler brown crown, sides of the head, lower 

 throat, foreneck and upper breast. The co-type obtained by Mr. S. White on the same day as 

 the type, does not e.xhibit the yellowish-brown tinge to the plumage as shown by Gould in the 

 figure of this species in his " Supplement to the Birds of Australia," " the light eyebrow is not 

 so pronounced, the extent of black on the face, and especially on the throat, more circumscribed, 

 and the under tail-coverts are distinctly margined with white. The se.\ is not given, but it is 

 apparently a female. Wing 47 inches. There is a somewhat similar specimen in the Australian 

 Museum Collection, from Kojonup, Western Australia, labelled "Aiiuiuus cincrens (young)," but 

 its soft and downy feathers exhibit the unmistakeable plumage of immaturity. Wing 4*7 inches. 

 Another specimen from the same locality has the head and under parts more distinctly shaded 

 with grey, and is similar to another specimen from Derby, North-western AustraHa. The wing 

 measurement of both are alike, 4-7 inches. 



Of the specimens in the .Australian Museum those agreeing best with Dr. Sharpe's description 

 of Artamus cinereus, that is with the less extent of black on the face, were all collected by the late 

 Mr. Alexander Morton at Yam Creek, about one hundred miles inland from Port Darwin. 



From Broken Hill, in South-western New South Wales, Dr. W. Macgillivray sends me 

 the following note : — " A rtanius melanops is our only Wood Swallow; these birds remain throughout 

 the year, and do not flock. A pair will have its own particular locality, and seem to keep to it 

 year after year if the season be favorable. The nest is usually placed in a small shrub or bush, 

 never more than three or four feet from the ground, and is built of small twigs and branchlets, 

 lined with finer material of the same sort. The eggs are three or four in number, placed in a 

 cavity measuring two and a half inches in diameter and one and a half inclies in depth. The 

 earliest nest of which I have a note was on the 13th October, and the latest in November. 



From South Australia Dr. A. M. Morgan writes me as follows : — " I have not met with 

 Avtamus melanops south of Port Augusta. It is there the most common species, and breeds freely 

 in all the parts north and west of this place which I have visited. They go about generally in 

 pairs, or small flocks of five or six, and closely resemble A. sordidus in their habits and manner 

 of nesting, a common nesting place being the top of a hollow stump or branch. The eggs are 

 usually four in number. I do not know that they have any regular breeding season, but believe 

 they breed when the conditions are favourable, that is after the rains." 



Mr. G. A- Keartland has sent me the following note : — " Artamus melanops I never saw south 

 of Oodnadatta, the present terminus of the transcontinental railway in South Australia. On the 

 route of the Horn Scientific Expedition we found them throughout the trip. They were either 

 in pairs or small flocks of five or six, probably parents and young, but never in large flocks like 

 A. superciliosus. In Western Australia we met with them at intervals from near Geraldton to 

 West Kimberley, North-western Australia. Their eggs vary considerably ; whilst some ha\-e 

 a white ground, spotted with lilac, others have a pinky-white ground heavily blotched with red. 

 A clutch of four I took on the Fitzroy River had a dirty white ground heavily marked with 

 umber brown." 



The nest is an open cup-shaped structure, composed externally of thin dried plant stalks, 

 and lined inside with fibrous rootlets, and occasionally with horse-hair. An average nest, taken 

 by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, measures externally four inches in diameter by three inches in 



* Suppl. Bds. Aust., fol., pi. 7 (iS 



