MASKED WOOD-SWALLOW. 
some of these birds for examination, so, walking back 40 yards from the tree 
on which they were flocking, I fired into the middle of them, bringing 
down one or two, when the mob rose in a cloud, circled round a couple of 
times, and then settled again in the same tree under which I was. Picking 
up the fallen birds I took their descriptions and measurements, and dissected 
them to find out their sexes. Ovaries in the females contained only very 
small eggs indeed, while the testes in the males were also very small (this 
was 13th August). The stomachs of all contained ants, and one had a 
small beetle. (Does not this suggest that the birds were capturing insects 
rather than seeking honey, the insects being attracted by the nectar- 
laden blossoms ? — Eds., Emu.) I have since watched A. cinereus honey- 
eating, but they never, so far as I can see, mob with the two previously 
mentioned. Gould makes no mention of this habit of the Artami .” 
He later recorded under A. superciliosus : “ A winter resident, when 
it may be seen in big flocks, in company with A. personatus , feeding and 
flying together and twittering like a lot of Sparrows. The fact of these 
birds seeking honey from the flowers was doubted by some readers, but as 
the birds have brush tongues the habit should not have been unexpected. 
I never saw any sign of their nesting here, and during the months October 
to February inclusive I have only one record — I saw tw'O on the 19th 
December, 1898. A. personatus. There seems to be a closer family tie 
between this Artamus and the preceding one than between any of the other 
Artami in this district. The remarks on this bird are practically a repetition 
of those given for A. superciliosus. But in 1898 a few pairs remained 
through the summer to breed, as I found a nest in November and two in 
December that year.” 
Some few years afterwards Chisholm also noted that these birds were 
honey-eaters, but recorded it as a novelty in his experience. A 
Whitlock has recorded from the East Murchison : “ Large numbers 
passed during the latter half of July, and again during the earlier part of 
August. On the spinifex plain at Bore Well during the latter period a large 
flock became weather-bound. I was hunting for Amytornis nests, and these 
Wood-Swallows proved a serious distraction. It was very fascinating to 
watch such large numbers of birds feeding all around one. They were not 
haw r king for insects, but were extracting the nectar from the flowers of a very 
curious plant, which was growing abundantly where the spinifex had quite 
recently been swept clean by a bush fire. . . The most curious habit of 
this plant is that it throws out its flow r ers at the base of the stalk. The 
Wood-Swallows were crouching down quite flat in extracting the nectar, 
and their foreheads and crowns were thickly coated with the ye!low r pollen. 
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