152 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



head sooty black, gradually passing into the deep grey which 

 covers the whole of the upper surface, wings, and tail ; the 

 latter tipped with white ; all the under surface very delicate 

 grey ; thighs dark grey ; irides blackish brown ; bill blue at 

 the base, becoming black at the tip ; legs and feet mealy 

 bluish grey. 



The female differs in having the colouring of the bill and 

 the black mask on the face much paler. 



8p 79. ARTAMUS SUPERCILIOSUS, Gould. 



White-eyebrowed Wood Swallow. 



Ocyptenis super ciliosus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part iv. 1836, 

 p. 142. 



Artamus superciliosus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 32. 



There is no species of Artamus yet discovered to which the 

 present yields the palm, either for elegance of form or for the 

 beauty and variety of its plumage ; the only one known with 

 which it could be confounded is the Artamus rujiventcr, an 

 Indian bird with the breast similarly coloured, but which is 

 entirely destitute of the superciliary stripe of white, which 

 suggested the specific name ; in this character and in the rich 

 chestnut colouruig of the breast, it differs from every member 

 of its genus. I am unable to say what is the extent of its 

 range, but I am induced to believe that it is confined to 

 Australia, and that in all probability it seldom leaves the 

 interior of the country ; the extreme limits of the colony of 

 New South Wales, particularly those which border the exten- 

 sive plains, being the only parts where it has yet been 

 observed. I first met with it at Yarrundi on the Dartbrook, 

 a tributary of the Hunter, where it was thinly dispersed 

 among the trees growing on the stony ridges bordering the 

 flats. 



From this locality to as far as I penetrated northwards on 

 the Namoi, as well as in the direction of the River Peel, it 



