ARTAMUS. 263 



presume, is only through severe droughts in other parts. Only upon two occasions have I 

 known them to breed here, and one of these nests was attended by three birds, one male and 

 two females, one of which I saw sitting upon three eggs, which were in a fairly advanced state 

 of incubation. The male was busily engaged feeding both females. For several days I noticed 

 a pair of birds in the tree where the nest was, so thinking they must have a nest I watched them, 

 and for about half an hour the male fed the female ; then, to my surprise, a second female 

 appeared and was also fed, when she immediately returned to the nest, which was placed high 

 up in a Red Gum tree, where a branch had broken off." 



On the gth of November, i8g6, I found a pair of these birds breeding in company with 

 Artamus personatus, in a ring-barked paddock near the Little Mountain, East Narrabri. The 

 nest was built in a piece of curled bark, hanging from the under side of a limb of a dead Belar, 

 Casuarina glauca, about nine feet from the ground. It was an open shallow structure, formed 

 externally of thin dried plant stalks, and lined inside with fibrous roots. On the same date of 

 the following year I found another nest of this species, about seventy-five miles farther north, 

 and near the Gwydir River. This nest was built in the top of a hollow stump, about three feet 

 from the ground, and consisted only of a scanty lining to the cavity of fibrous roots and black 

 horsehair. Although the nest contained eggs, and I disturbed the female while sitting, these 

 birds were extremely shy, and it was some time before I managed to secure them. 



The eggs are four in number for a sitting, and cannot be distinguished from those of Artamus 

 mchmops. A set of four taken by Mr. H. G. Barnard, at Duaringa, Queensland, on the 24th 

 October, 1892, measures: — Length (A) o-88 x 0-65 inches; (B) 0-85 x o-66 inches; (C) 

 0-83 X o'62 inches ; (D) o-8g x 0-64 inches. 



October and the two following months constitute the usual breeding season of the White- 

 vented Wood Swallow. 



Artamus minor. 



LITTLE WOOD SWALLOW. 

 Artamus minor, Vieill., Nouv. Diet, d' Hist. Nat., Tom XVII., p. 298 (1817); Gould, Bds. Austr., 

 fol. Vol. II., pi. 28 (1848); id., Handb. Bds. Austr., p. U6 (1865); Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XIIL, p. 21 (1890); id., Hand-1. Bds, Vol. IV., p. 262 (1903). 



Adult male — General colour above and below chocolate-broivn ; upper and tmder tail-coverts 

 black; ivings leaden-black, the tail slightly darker, all but the central pair 0/ feathers and the outermost 

 one on either side largely tipjied iviih wliile, except on the extreme edge of the outer iveb; lores and a 

 narroto frontal line black; chin blackish; bill (of skin) deep blue, black at the tip; legs and feet black. 

 I'otal length 5'9 inches, wing Jf-2, tail ;?-6, bill O'lfO, tarsus 5. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Central Australia. 



/ 1(^HE Little Wood Swallow is widely distributed over the northern portion of the Australian 

 J_ Continent. Gould records specimens from Port Essington, and states that he met with 

 this species in abundance as far south as the Lower Namoi River in New South Wales. 

 Although I have made several visits to this district I never succeeded in meeting with this 

 species in this, or in any other part of the State. Evidently this is another instance like Poephila 

 cincta of a species once common during the time of Gould's visit that no longer occurs in New 

 South Wales. Among the specimens enumerated in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum,"* is one collected by Gould in New South Wales, but the precise locality is not recorded. 



• Gould. Cat. Btit. Bds. Mus.. Vol. XIII., p. 21 (1890). 



