BLACK-FACED WOOD-SWALLOW 
Gould — I am very doubtful about the species, as we have in the Museum 
two specimens received from Mr. Gould as his Artamus melanops ; and these 
two individuals I can hardly separate from A. cinereus. They have a little 
more black on the face, and narrower white edgings to the under tail-coverts ; 
this appears to be the best character ; but, as I have already hinted, 
it appears to be somewhat variable. At the same time this species is so 
little known that perhaps A. venuslus may turn out to be only the adult 
stage.” 
Then he admitted A. perspicillatus Bonap. from Timor and added 
Artamus venustus sp. n. “ Five specimens of this bird are in the Museum, 
brought by Dr. Elsey during the expedition to North-western Australia. 
Some of them were determined by the late Mr. G. R. Gray as A. perspicillatus , 
and some as A. cinereus . They appear to me to be neither the one nor the 
other. The white tips to the under tail-coverts and the two entirely 
black central tail feathers sufficiently prove that they are not A. 
perspicillatus. From A. cinereus the females of the north-western bird are 
more difficult to tell ; but they are smaller, and do not have the black so 
extended on the cheeks ; and this character seems to prevent their being 
A. melanops . ” 
When he prepared the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, 
he noted that Gould’s name albiventris was preoccupied and renamed 
Gould’s species hypoleucus, but otherwise no change was made. 
Then Ingram proposed as a new species from Alexandra, Northern 
Territory, Artamus fior entice, stating : “ Similar to A. melanops , but with 
the black under tail-coverts much more broadly tipped with white. General 
colour uniformly paler and more ashy than in A. melanops , in which species 
the back is browner. The under surface is also conspicuously paler, being 
of a clear pearl grey, instead of drab. Total length 7 ’3 inches, culmen *8, 
wing 4*8, tail 3, tarsus *85.” 
It will be noted that Ingram considered melanops to have the under 
tail-coverts tipped with white, though Gould had stated “ jet-black.” When 
Hall received Rogers’ series he noted : “In two males and two females 
there is a trace of a frontal line above the base of the culmen ; in other 
specimens there is no trace of it except before the lores. In two adult males, 
the under tail-coverts are broadly edged with white, while in another they 
are narrowly edged with white. I am disposed to sink A. melanops and 
A. venustus in favor of this species, and give it a wider distribution.” Gould 
also stated for this species jet-black under tail-coverts. 
The conclusion that A. venustus Sharpe and A. melanops Gould 
were the same as A. cinereus Vieillot, had been given by Ramsay in 1888 who. 
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