INSECT-DESTROYING BIRDS. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 



THE WHITE EYEBROWED WOOD SWALLOW. 



(^A?'iamus sicperciliosus, Gould.) 



This valuable insect-destroying bird, wliicli in the 

 summer time is to be seen in large numbers in the 

 country districts of Victoria, in the early days of the 

 colony was known to all country people as the "summer 

 bird," a name which, considering it appeared only in the 

 summer, was not by any means an inappropriate one. 



The following is a description of the bird, its nest, and 

 eggs, by Mr. A. J. North, Ornithologist, of the Australian 

 Museum, Sydney : — "This bird is strictly migratory, 

 arriving in Victoria to breed about the end of November, 

 and departing again at the commencement of March. 

 Sometimes, however, three, four, and even five years 

 elapse without seeing a single specimen, and it is remark- 

 able when they visit us in great numbers, as far south as 

 Melbourne, that it is during a period of drought in the 

 interior. It builds a round and almost flat scanty nest 

 of roots and grasses, through which the eggs in some 

 situations can be seen from below in every possible posi- 

 tion, both in the indigenous and acclimatised trees of our 

 public parks and gardens. In Albert Park I have found 

 no less than ten nests, each containing eggs, in a single 

 row of Pines (^Pinus insignis) of about 50 yards in 

 length ; the trees at that time being of a uniform height 

 of 5 feet. At other times the nest is placed in the hori- 

 zontal fork of the Eucalypti or Acacia, in the broad flat 

 leaves of the Norfolk Island Pine {Araucaria excelsa)., 

 and on two occasions I have found it in the leafy top of 

 a rose bush. The eggs are three in number, usually of a 



