430 
Birds of Celebes: Artamidae. 
ihis species aj pears to be a recent invader from the islands in the South 
to South Celebes, where it occurs together with L. leucopygiali^, a species which 
is peculiar to Celebes,! w'hereas L. Umoremis has a wider distribution. What 
Meyer described (g 1) as Tj. riedeU from Kisser near Timor does not differ 
in coloration from the typical form, which we are now able to compare, but 
whether the differences in size (see measurements above) entitle it to the rank 
of a subspecies, only future investigation with more specimens in hand can show. 
FAMILY ARTAMIDAE. 
As Gadow' remarks (Newton’s Diet. B. 739), Artamm is the only genus 
in the enormous group of the Passeres known to possess powder-down patches. 
“They occur in all the species, in patches on the sides of the breast, the thighs 
and lower back, and have a strong barrel, one-third of an inch long”. They 
are simply coloured birds, chiefly grey or black above and white below, with 
very long wings, reaching far beyond the end of the tail; the first primary is 
minute, the second and third the longest, the secondaries rather more than half 
as long. The bill is about as long as the cranium, bluish in colour, the culmen 
rounded, almost bloated; it is covered by a cere at its base, hidden hy the 
feathers of the forehead; nostril a roundish apeifure in the horn of the bill; 
tarsus shorter than the toes, which form a rather large foot. They catch most 
of their insect-food on the wing, and their flight has been compared to that of 
Swallows and of Birds-of-prey. The sexes are similar, and the young closely 
resemble their parents; the nest and eggs ai’e Shrike-like. Sharpe recognizes 
two genera, found in the Australian and Oriental Regions, and in West Africa. 
Celebes has two species of this family which is most strongly represented 
in Australia, one peculiar, most nearly allied to a form in the New Britain 
group, the other a species of wide range which seems to have spread over the 
Bast Indies in recent times. As these birds have very fine flying -powers they 
are not of much weight in questions of geographical distribution. 
Genus artamus vieiii. 
The characters as for the family. It differs from Pseudochelidon of West 
Africa by its pointed bill, which is longer than the hind toe and claw, and by 
its square tail (Sharpe). Australian and Oriental Regions. 
166. ARTAMUS LEUCOGASTER (Val.). 
White-rumped Swallow-shrike. 
a. Ocypterus leucogaster (I) Valenc., Mem. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. 1820, VI, 21 pi VH fig 2 
b. Artamus leucopygialis (1) GId., P. Z. S. 1842, 17; (II) id., B. Austr. 1848, D, pi. 33^; 
(3) id., HB. B. Austr. 1865, I, 154; (4) Studer, Reise Gazelle 1889, MT, 189. 
