Birds of Celebes: Artamidae. 



433 



Artamus leucogaster is a species which appears to have recently extended 

 its range, having issued most probably from Australia, where the Artamidae are 

 most strongly represented and where A leucogaster in South Australia and New 

 South Wales "would appear to be migratory, visiting these parts in summer for 

 the purpose of breeding" (Gould b 3). In the East India Islands it seems to 

 be stationary. In Celebes, as Meyer remarks, it is very common at all times 

 and everywhere; it is said by Fischer to occur throughout the year in Ternate; 

 it breeds plentifully in Java, breeds also in the Andamans, where specimens 

 have been collected in most months of the year — January till July, November, 

 December; while the dates of specimens tend to prove that it is stationary and 

 therefore a breeding bird in other parts. Specimens from the Tenimber Islands 

 are distinguishable by their dusky plumage, the broader zone of white across the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts, larger bill, and tail narrowly tipped with white. They 

 appear to be the only form of A. leucogaster worthy of specific- or subspecilic 

 distinction, and have been named A. tniisschenbroeki by Meyer. It would be of 

 interest to know why Timorlaut has furnished the first appreciable differentiation 

 of this form; but these islands seem to lie out of the way of invaders from 

 Australia and New Guinea (see, article on Cacatua siilphurea). Celebesian 

 examples have been said to be larger than others; the largest of those in the 

 Dresden Museum are somewhat larger than those from other localities, but 

 other adult examples from Celebes are again considerably smaller than some of 

 the latter. 



The food of Artamus consists of insects. Its striking habits of flight are 

 commented on by many writers. Wallace remarks that they closely resemble 

 Swallows in their habits and flight, and Gould compares the present species, 

 when seen flying near the ground, to the House Martin of our own country. 

 Bernstein speaks of its flight as having some similarity to a Bird-of-prey's , as 

 it sails aways almost without making a stroke on outstretched wings, or alters 

 its direction by simply raising or lowering one wing or the other. Yet this is 

 gone through slowly with nothing of the rushing haste of the small true Falcons, 

 or of the Swallows either (2). It has the habit of sallying out from its perch 

 and catching its insect-food on the wing, "sometimes making only a short flight, 

 at others a very extended one before returning to the same or another perch. 

 It frequently descends to the ground to pick up an insect, and I have at times 

 seen several seated together on the roads" (near Port Blair, Andaman Islands, 

 Davison c 3). 



By many authors, as Prof. Newton (Diet. B. 1893, 22) remarks, the Arta- 

 midae "are considered to be the nearest neighbours of the Hirundinidae , making 

 some approach to them in their long wings and habit of catching insects in 

 continuous flights. If it be granted from their possessing patches of powder- 

 down (Nitzsch, Pterylogr. Engl. ed. 1867, 80) that they should form a sepa- 

 rate family Artamidae, its true alliance must still be guessed at". 



Meyer & Wi gUswo ith, Birds of Celelies (Nov. (ith, 1S97). 55 



