OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
the second brood were perched in pairs or threes together, on a 
dead twig near their nest. They were constantly visited and fed 
by the adults, who were hawking about for insects in great numbers, 
some performing their evolutions above the tops and among the 
branches of the trees, while others were sweeping over the open 
plain with great rapidity of flight, making in their progress through 
the air the most rapid and abrupt turns, at one moment rising to 
a considerable altitude, and the next descending to within a few 
feet of the ground, as the insects of which they were in pursuit 
arrested their attention. In the brushes, on the contrary, the 
flight of this bird is more soaring and of a much shorter duration, 
particularly when hawking in the open glades, which frequently 
teem with insect life. When flying near the ground, the white 
mark on the rump shows very conspicuously, and strikingly reminds 
one of the house marten of our own country.” 
Captain Sturt, in his last arduous expedition into Central 
Australia, writes of Artamus sordidus , “ The flight and habits 
of this bird are very like those of the swallow tribe. They huddle 
together and roost, selecting a flat round stump, round the edge of 
which they sit, with their heads inwards, and presenting a singular 
appearance; or else they cling together, to the number of thirty 
or forty, on a branch, like a swarm of bees. They were seen in 
every part of the interior, over the whole of which they appear to 
range.” 
In these observations we find pourtrayed the exact habits of 
many of the swallows. Like them, the Artanni feed almost 
entirely on the wing, sweeping, soaring, or skimming over the 
surface of the country, and in pursuing a similar prey, of necessity 
pursuing similar evolutions ; or if we do find some species selecting 
a different food, or living partially upon berries, we have parallel 
instances among the strong-billed American swallows and others. 
The purple marten occasionally feeds on berries ; and Wilson tells 
us, that the little marten, Hirundo bicolor , “ for some time before 
their departure, subsist principally on the jnyrtle berries (Myrica 
cceriferaj , and become extremely fat.” The food of the more 
slender-formed Steatornis also tells us, that insect support is not 
a peculiar though it is a general character of the Fissirostres. In 
at family also, the weak feet, ill formed for walking, seldom per- 
a "- v 01 the members to feed upon the ground. In the Artami, 
