ABTAMUS. 47 



S-f. ARTAMUS MINOR, VieiUot. 



Little Wood Swallow. 



Gould, Handhh. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 74, p. 146. 



Mr. George Barnard informs me that this species builds its 

 nests often in the end of a hollow branch, or in hollows in the tops 

 of stumps and broken trees, and posts, sometimes in old mortice 

 holes in fences ; the nest is very frail and scanty structure, merely 

 a few leaves, sticks, and twigs put together so loosely that it will 

 scarcely bare removal. The eggs two, three, or four for a sitting, 

 are of a dull white or cream colour, blotched with yellowish-brown 

 and obsolete markings of slaty-grey, which in some specimens are 

 heavily blotched with these colours, others spotted, blotched, 

 freckled or minutely dotted ; all are more or less zoned at the 

 thicker end, in some the spots are confluent, forming ill-shapen 

 figures, in others round or oval and well defined. Length (1) 

 0-75 X 0-55— average size; (2) 0-71 x 0-45 ; (3) 0-76 x 0-55 ; (4) 

 0-75 X 0-57. {Bamsay, P.L.S., N.S. W., Vol. vii., p. 407.) 



Sab. Derby, N. W. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay 

 District, Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, 

 New South Wales, West and South-West Australia. {Ramsay.) 



^J^^ ARTAMUS SUPERCILIOSUS, Gould. 



White-eyebrowed Wood Swallow. 



Gould, Handhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 79, p. 152. 



This bird is strictly migratory, arriving in Victoria to bi'eed, 

 about the end of November, and departing again at the commence- 

 ment of March, sometimes however, three, four, and even five 

 years elapse without seeing a single specimen, and it is remarkable 

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

 that it is during a period of drought in the interior. 



