THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 37 



for the season insect life is specially abundant. At the 

 e time it is noticeable that a certain number are generally 



jociated with a distinct area. Hawking singly, in pairs, 

 jr in a flock constantly assembling upon the grassed ground, 

 they raid. In the latter case they move by "jump" motion. 

 Often does a single bird (but never a silent one) choose 

 a pinnacle some twenty feet high, maybe the upper portion 

 of a tree, and settling itself to the business of the evening, 

 leaves its headquarters in direct pursuit of a dipterous 

 or other winged insect, and returning essays another chase, 

 continuing to repeat the same for a considerable time, soaring 

 downwards and winging its active upward way by a series of 

 rapid flaps. Previous to entering upon the serious portion of 

 life, the birds assemble in flocks amongst the lower portions of 

 the higher leafy vegetation, causing a vocal din such as one would 

 not expect from a group of birds so graceful in their movements, 

 the harsh, sharp and powerful chirps of a hundred birds, con- 

 tinuously repeated, not being as pleasant (at all events somewhat 

 modified) as in the sobered parents of twenty-one days later. I 

 remember a large flock of the swallows taking possession of a 

 cluster of timber in which were a Black Fantail, its mate, nest 

 and eggs, and only occassionally could the little bird be heard. 

 It tried, and generally succeeded, after they had retired for the 

 night. 



The second of a weekly visit showed their desire for nest- 

 building had in part set in, and the constructions were completed 

 in one or two days. Some were rapid in work, others appeared 

 to play in comparison. 



Artamus supercitiosus (Gould), White-eyebrowed Wood 

 Swallow.- — A clutch of eggs was observed on 8th November, 

 with the birds still in flocks on the 17th of the same month. 

 With this species both sexes incubate. The young of others 

 were on the wing by the 23rd, but before leaving the nests a 

 relic of inheritance was distinctly noticeable in the horizontal 

 and perpendicular motions of the short-plumaged tail, as is per- 

 petual with the day movements of the parents. The fledgeling, 

 when taken from the nest, announced itself by two calls — one 

 imitative of the general note of the mother, though more broken 

 and feeble, and the second of fear, which was the result of being 

 away from its nest fifteen minutes. This bird we endeavoured to 

 domesticate, but without success — it refused to eat. The eggs 

 varied in markings slightly, with a deep or light ground colour — 

 one egg in a set of three had the zone of spots at the narrow 

 end, the other two were normal. They differed on the average 

 only a shade in dimensions, and in the number to a clutch 

 from four to two. Of twelve nests observed three contained 

 four eggs, six three eggs, three two eggs, all well incubated. 



