THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor lias written me: “ This is a common migratory species 
to the Adelaide Plains, coming in company with A. personatus at different 
parts of the year, and seem to mix together with all confidence and peace- 
ableness although I have never found them interbreeding, but they often 
place their nests quite close by those of each other, almost in the same tree, 
but do not intermix. They often arrive in flocks, flying high when they first 
come and then coming down low, and taking possession of the thickly bushed 
and treed parts, the Reedbeds being quite an ideal locality for them to find 
their living. They soon start to build their loose nests of small twigs, lined 
with fibrous rootlets ; they are sometimes placed in the upright fork of a 
small tree, and sometimes placed behind a piece of loose bark on the side of 
a large gum tree, but they are easily found, as the birds keep up a constant 
calling, being somewhat plaintive, sometimes harsh ; if they are disturbed 
they take no care to hide their home, but fly backwards and forwards over it 
and settle by and on it even while the intruder is near by.” 
Mr. A. G. Campbell has sent me a note : “A great invasion into 
Southern Victoria occurred in September- October, 1895. Birds in countless 
numbers were nesting in the Mornington Peninsula in every available 
position, high up in trees, in boles of trees, in shrubs and bushes, filling the air 
with grey flashing wings and cheery cries. Nests contained two eggs each, 
though one was noticed with 3 eggs which were small in size. A few pairs 
of A. personatus ware in these flocks. About the suburbs of Melbourne the 
birds also came, and some even nested in shade trees by the roadsides of 
Toorak and Royal Park. At the gardens of the School of Horticulture, 
Burnley, four miles only from the General Post Office, Melbourne, the birds 
found a peaceful spot and I saw nests in practically every kind of tree in 
the place, even to the raspberry canes and gooseberry bushes. Near Stawell, 
in the early summer of 1908, 1 observed numbers of A. superciliosus with a few 
A. perso?iatus among them feeding upon the blossoms of box trees ( Eucalyptus 
melliodora). The birds would fly in, cling among the flowers for a few seconds, 
and then circle out again. I presumed the birds were seeking the nectar, but 
the presence of considerable numbers of small plant bugs among the blossoms 
may have been another reason. These Wood-Sw^allows also feed largely 
upon the ground on grasshoppers and other insects.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has sent me the following : “ These two species 
(A. superciliosus and A. personatus) always come together, usually in large 
numbers, making their first appearance more often than not on a very hot 
north wind day, only staying perhaps tw r o days and then disappearing for 
a w r eek or more. Whether the same flock returns or others take their places 
I cannot say, but on the second visit they proceed to w r ork without delay. 
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