432 
Birds of Celebes: Artamidae. 
Measurements (10 adults from Celebes). Wing 134 — 146 mm; tail 63 — 68; bill from nostril 
15 — 16.5; tarsus 18 ca. 
(2 young). Wing 117, 118; tail 61, 65; bill from nostril 12.5; tarsus 18. 
Skeleton. Parts of it have been treated of by Parker, Trans. Z. S. Vol. IX, 1873, 317, 
and Sliarpe, Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. m, 26, 1892. 
Eggs. (Java) 3 — 4, faintly glossy ground tending somewhat to yellowish, and usually with a 
very well-marked and plain circlet of grey and brown spots towards the blunt end. 
The brown ones — usually pale Hver-brown — are the more numerous and vary 
considerably .... the grey are pale ash-coloiu- and seem to lie under the brown, 
i. e. in the shell itself. Several variations are described. Size 23 — 25 X 17 — 18 tuiti 
(Bernstein 2). — (Australia) usually 3, flesh-white or dull white, freckled, spotted 
and blotched, with yellowish brown, and bluish grey, the last appearing as if beneath 
the surface of the shell; usually a zone at the larger end; size 22.9 — 24.1 X 15.7 — 16.0 
(North 9, Grould b 3). — “The eggs have a white (Java) to yellowish (Austraba) 
ground, with large lilac spots below and similar liver-brown spots above, which form 
a closed circlet at the blunt end. They bring to mind the eggs of our common 
Lani'us collurio and are of like size = 22 — 33 X 17 imn” (Nehrkorn MS). 
Nest. (Java) — Exteriorly somewhat Shrike-like, usually placed amongst the many kinds of 
parasites which always clothe the stem of the Areng-palm, or also in the lappets 
formed by the leaves of this or of the cocoa-pahn, and only rarely in the leafy crown 
of a dicotyledonous tree. Made of dry, somewhat coarse stalks, roots, leaves, bits 
of lichen and moss, roughly and loosely bound together giving the nest a disorderly, 
shaggy exterior; lined with finer materials, mostly the elastic threads of the Areng- 
palm, and a few soft stalks, foming a regular flattened, half-spherical receptacle 
(Bernstein 2). 
(Andamans). — One found was a shallow, saucer-shaped structure of grass, some- 
what coarse exteriorly, finer inside, placed in the hollow at the top of a rotten 
mangrove stump 20 ft. liigh (Davison c 3). 
(Australia). — Often avails itself of the deserted nests of other species instead of 
building a new one. Most of the pairs found breeding by Gould had possessed them- 
selves of the forsaken nests of GraUina picata, re-hning it with grasses, etc. Nests 
made by the birds themselves are of grasses and fine plants, placed in the fork 
of a tree growing by, or in, the water (Gould b 3, North 9). 
Breeding season. Australia — September till January (b 8)] Andamans — building. May 2”^ 
(c 3)-, Celebes — as the two young specimens, about 2 months old, in the Dresden 
Museum were killed in the middle of May, it appears that the bird breeds here early 
in the year. 
Distribution. Almost all the islands south and east of a line drawn from the Andaman Is- 
lands through the Malacca Straits to Luzon, as far as E. New Guinea, Victoria and 
S. Australia. Eor exact localities see Salvadori 4, 12, adding — Billiton and 
Mendanau (Vorderman c 9], Palawan (Platen 10), Bali (Wallace 11), Natuna Is. 
(Everett, Hose iS, 27), Sumbawa, Satonda, Sumba (Doherty 2ff), several Philippine 
Islands (B. & W. 20)-, Celebes Province — Minahassa (Wallace 11, Meyer c 5, 
etc.); Gorontalo Distr. (Meyer c 5); E. Celebes (Nat. Coll. 24); S. Celebes — Ma- 
cassar (Wallace 11, Meyer c 5, Weber 17, etc.), Tjamba Distr. (Platen 7); Saleyer 
Island (Weber 17, Everett 26)', Djampea (Everett 2ff); Islands off N. Celebes — 
Banka, Lembeh and Manado tua (Nat. Coll.); Togian Islands (Meyer c 5); Peling 
and Banggai (Nat. Coll. 24). 
As yet unrecorded from Sangi, Talaut, and Sula (?). 
