BLACK-FACED WOOD-SWALLOW. 
"busily engaged in extracting them ; at other times, particularly among 
the limestone hills, where there are but few trees, it descends to the 
broken rocky ground in search of insects and their larvae. . . The 
sexes are alike in colour, and can only be distinguished from each other 
with certainty by dissection. I have remarked that specimens from 
Timor rather exceed in size those collected on the Australian continent, 
and are somewhat lighter in colour ; but these variations are too slight 
to be regarded as specific.” This is a strange statement in view of 
his differentiation of A. melanops as “ unlike every other known member 
of the genus ” yet his only characteristics are “ differs from A. cinereus 
in its smaller size and the greater extent of the black on the face.” 
I will deal with this in the technical portion of this account. 
Mr. Tom Carter writes : “In your Reference List the Grey-breasted 
Wood-Swallow (under the name of Black-vented), A. cinereus ( melanops ), 
is given as occurring in South-western Australia, in which part it has 
never come under my observation, but in the Gascoyne and North-west 
Cape districts, it is by far the commonest species of Artamus, occurring, 
in some seasons, in countless numbers. They usually make an 
appearance with the winter rains, and have a habit of flying at a very 
great elevation (at certain times), the whole flock uttering a ceaseless 
chorus of twitterings. Most probably at such times, which are in bright 
calm weather, they have ascended to feed on certain insects, which have 
flown high. The chief breeding months are August and September, 
in which months, during a good season, their nests are constantly seen, 
built in bushes, usually four to five feet above the ground. Three 
eggs is the usual clutch and they vary much in colouring. Nests are 
built of a few small twigs and lined with grass or flower stalks, and 
are somewhat shallow.” 
Alexander has, however, written regarding the birds of Perth : “Winter 
visitor. Small parties are met with in the neighbourhod of Perth, especially 
on the open coastal limestone hills. Gilbert met with them ( breeding ) over 
80 years ago in the neighbourhood of Fremantle, as recorded in Gould’s 
‘ Handbook.’ I have seen this species on a number of occasions in July, 
August, September and October.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers has written me : “At Marngle Creek this was a common 
species, apparently all in adult plumage. At Mungi it was not numerous, 
still, small parties are seen every day. In this (Mungi) district the number 
of individual birds of each species is small ; taking this into consideration 
this is one of the common birds of Mungi. This I believe to be a resident 
species in Kimberley, and is largely a ground feeder and is often seen in 
' VOL. X. 
249 
