THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. 1. P. Austin writing from Cobbora, New South Wales, states : 
Never numerous in this district, but most springs a few arrive, and although 
I have never seen them in large flocks, at times as many as twenty birds may 
be seen m fairly close company ; more often met with in pairs or three or four 
together. Strictly migratory, I have never seen them upon the ground for 
any purpose except to gather nesting material; they are mostly to be seen 
high up in fairly large trees, and they obtain all their food upon the wing. 
They nearly always perch upon a dead stick near the fop of a tree, and 
generally two -or more cuddled closely together; then suddenly one will sally 
forth after some passing insect, only immediately to return to the original 
perch, and then another bird will do exactly the same and so on. In this 
district their nests are invariably placed rather high up, and are either situated 
in an old Magpie-Lark’s nest, in a shallow hollow, or where a branch has 
broken off, and it is no uncommon thing to see more than a pair of birds 
attending a nest from the time they commence building, until the young 
leave it. The nest is very similar to that of A. cyanopterus. The clutch 
is usually four. In North Queensland I found these birds nesting low down 
in the fronds of the pandanus palms growing on the islands. When sitting 
they are not very easily flushed, but when they do, will return almost 
immediately to the nest. All the nests I have examined containing eggs 
have been during October and November.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written : “I have not seen this species in South 
Australia, but noted it at the Blackall Ranges in Queensland, and also 
observed if on the Tweed River, New South Wales, in November, 1907, 
where they had large young out of the nest, and were feeding them as they 
perched on telegraph wires ; the old birds sallied forth and caught flies on 
the wing and returned to the young, who were perched in a row, uttering a 
plaintive chirping note and showing the usual characteristic wag of the 
tail from side to side.” 
From the Richmond District, North Queensland, Berney has recorded : 
“ During; the summer the White-rumped Wood-Swallows are here in fair 
numbers, but as the winter approaches they slip away, till in July they are 
represented by only occasional birds. Some winters they are entirely 
absent. They come back to us in August, and commence nesting without 
delay, as I have seen one sitting on its nest — it had made use of a disused 
Magpie-Lark’s ( Grallina ) — on 27th August. It is a smart bird in appearance, 
and the most aerial of the Artami , except, perhaps, A. minor. From my 
diary I take the following : ‘ Artamus leucogaster are here now (2nd August), 
in some numbers ; I counted to-day one little party of thirteen up in the 
topmost branches of a gum on the river bank. They generally select the 
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