AETAMUS EUSCUS. 
667 
Murasing Chatterer, Brown-coloured Swallow, Latham ; Ash-coloured Stv allow- Shrike, The 
Ashy Swallow-Shrike, Jerdon. Murasing, Mussulmen in Bengal; Tari ahabil. Hind, in 
South, lit. “Palmyra-Swallow;” Talchatak, Bengal., and Tati pitta, Telugu, likew'ise 
“ Palmyra-Swallow' ; Silliangchi pho, Lepchas. 
Madam Porn, Tamils in Ceylon. 
Adult male and female. Length 7'1 to 7’4 mches ; wing 5-1 to 5-3, expanse 15'0 ; tail 2-2 to 2-3 ; tarsus 0-65 to 0-75 ; 
middle toe and claw 0-75 ; bill to gape I’O. 
Iris dark brown (paler or reddish brown in the female) ; bill milky blue, with the tips of both mandibles blackish ; legs 
and feet dusky bluish, claws dark plumbeous. 
Females have, as far as my observations go, the base of the mouth yeUow, while the male has the inside entirely black. 
Head and hind neck soft slate-grey, changing into reddish cinereous on the back, scapulars, and rump, and passing 
round to the throat and fore neck, which are slightly dusky ; lores and round the base of both mandibles blackish ; 
upper tail-coverts whitish, the terminal portion only showing beneath the rump-feathers ; wings and tail dark cine- 
reous bhre, the secondaries and shorter primaries with a fine terminal light edging ; tail broadly tipped with whitish, 
the central rectrices with pale tips only ; beneath, from the chest, dove-grey, tinged with rufescent, and paling to 
white on the under tail-coverts, which are crossed with narrow, wavy, grey bars. 
The moulting-season commences about July in the southern districts, and birds in new feather are in the plumage 
above described. When the tips of the feathers wear off, the upper surface has a reddish-brown or rusty 
appearance, and the under surface becomes a sullied creamy white ; the tail-feathers almost entirely lose their 
white tips, as do also the upper taU-coverts. 
Young. In yearling plumage the young are dull earthy brown on the head and back, the feathers faintly margined 
with a paler colour. Secondaries and inner primaries hroadly tipped with white ; throat duskier than in the adult, 
blending gradually into the hue of the breast, which is ruddier than in the adult. 
Ois. Examples in the national collection from Nepal and Behar measure 5-2 and 5-3 inches in the wing; two from 
Madras 6-15 and 4-95 ; several others, locality not indicated, 5-0, 5-2, and 5-3 — showing that, on the whole, they 
average about the size of our birds. As a rule, these examples are slightly redder beneath than the Ceylon race, 
and there does not seem to exist in them that faint trace of obsolete barring which is observable in some Ceylonese 
specimens ; in a larger aeries, however, this unimportant character might be revealed. Artamws leucorhynchus, 
Linn., now united to tho Australian A. leucopygialis, Gould, was, it appears, formerly confounded with this species, 
and appears in Kelaart’s ‘ Catalogue of Ceylon Birds,’ on what authority wm know not. It inhabits the Andaman 
Islands, the Philippines, Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago, as w^ell as Australia, 
and is a very distinct species from the present ; the head and neck are bluish slate, and the back and wings 
chocolate-brown ; the under surface from the throat downwards, together with a broad band across the rump, pure 
white ; tail blackish. A Labuan example measures in the wing 5-5 inches, tail 2-6, bill to gape I'l ; Andaman 
specimens, according to Mr. Hume, average smaller than others ; but the Marquis of Tw'eeddale did not consider 
them specifically separable. The size of w'ing given in ‘ Stray Feathers,’ 1874, p. 214, for Andaman birds, is 5-0 
to 6-25 inches. 
The Indian bird is more closely allied to A.personatus, Gould, from Australia. This latter has the ear-coverts, as well 
as the lores, black; the chin and upper part of the throat blackish slate, not coming down so far on the fore neck 
as the dark hues in A. fuseus ; breast and flank reddish ashy, paling into white on the vent and under tail- 
coverts ; back greyer than in our bird, with no white bar across the tail-coverts ; tail grey, tipped with white. 
It differs in many more particulars, but has a general resemblance to our bird. 
This interesting genus is mainly developed in Australia, eight sjiecies being represented in Mr. Eamsay s recent list of 
Australian birds (Proc. Linn. 8oc. N. S. Wales), and thirteen inhabiting the entire Australian region. 
Distribution. — The Wood-“ Swallow” is widely distributed throughout all the low country, inhabiting 
most numerously open lands and the borders of lagoons in the maritime districts, especially along the east 
coast, and down the west side as far as Negombo. Further south, where these open tracts disappear (except 
at Panadure, where it is again numerous), it is chiefly found in the interior, being very common even in the 
wooded districts of Saffragam. In the northern forest tract it chiefly frequents the open lands round the 
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