WHITE-BROWED WOOD-SWALLOW. 
making flimsy nests of small twigs or grass which have eggs a few days after 
second arrival, usually two, sometimes three. The nest is usually within 
easy reach, sometimes in a fork of acacia or casuarina, but in the Mannum 
district last October (1919 ?), a favourite place was in the leafy tops of low 
thick tea tree. Both these species in some years come in thousands. They 
usually settle on some prominent twig or top of tree, making spasmodic 
flights from the vantage ground, returning to the twig after graceful hawking 
for insects for some time. When the intruder is near the nest, the parent 
birds fly to tree adjacent to nest and make a great chattering noise, wagging 
their tails vigorously from side to side. Hear Mannum, while there were 
thousands of A. parsonatus nesting, there were very few pairs of A. superciliosusA 
Mr. T. P. Austen has written : “As these tw r o species, the Whit e-br owed 
and Masked Wood-Swallows arrive here (Cobbora district, New South Wales) 
together during the early spring in very large flocks, and owing to their 
habits being exactly similar, my notes upon one apply to the other in all 
respects, excepting that the former is much more numerous. Usually first 
seen flying very high in the air, sometimes so high that they are only just 
visible, where one’s attention is first drawn to them by hearing their clear 
twittering notes. Some years they come in thousands, but most of them 
pass on to breed, although always a few of the Whit e-br ow r ed remain for 
that purpose, but seldom so with the Masked. Of all the birds met with in 
this district, I know of none which from the time of the commencement of the 
nest, until the young leave it, is accomplished in so short a period, their nest 
being a very frail, scanty structure, which is completed in three days or 
sometimes even less. I have never actually timed the period of incubation, 
but it always appears to be very short compared with other species laying 
eggs of the same size, and the young birds certainly grow' - wonderfully quickly. 
I look upon these birds as the most useful of all our feathered friends, the 
vast number of insects they destroy each year must be simply enormous, 
their appetites never seem to be satisfied, as, excepting when migrating and 
sitting, they are feeding practically the wdiole day long. I have never seen 
them in thick scrubs, preferring the open forests, but more especially ‘ ring- 
barked ’ country, also having a preference for orchards and parks, and even 
small gardens, etc., where they breed freely. A. superciliosus places its 
nest in almost any situation, usually at no very great height from the ground, 
such as on horizontal branches of almost any tree, on top of stumps and 
stockyards posts, and in their mortice holes, between pieces of hanging 
bark and the trunk of a tree, and even in shallow hollows in dead and living 
branches, and quite regardless of the presence of man or any kind of traffic. 
The nests are of such a flimsy nature, that when placed upon the branch of 
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