WOOD-SWALLOW. 
have a feeble pleasant little song, which is somewhat similar to that 
of Hirundo neoxena , but it is seldom uttered. Their nests are cup- 
shaped and more substantial than those of the White-browed, they are 
formed of thin dry twigs and lined with roots. The clutch is 
usually two, rarely three, and eggs may be found from the last 
week in September till the middle of December.” 
Captain S. A. White’s notes read : “A familiar bird witliin a 
hundred miles of the coast of this state, but upon going into the 
interior it becomes rare or disappears. I am sorry to say they are 
not nearly so numerous as they were in years gone by, and this is a 
loss to the state, for they are most useful birds. I have known 
them to wipe out a great area of grasshoppers which were eating 
all greenstuff in front of them. They are the only members of the 
family which I have seen clinging in the strange formation like bees 
to a limb : this takes place at dusk or on a misty, cold dark day, 
when they will cling in a mass to the sheltered side of a tree 
trunk or limb. I had a strange experience when speaking at a 
country town upon the economic value of our native birds. An 
apiarist in a large way said this bird destroyed his bees in great 
numbers and that he had been shooting the birds. I argued with 
him, but he would not be convinced. A week or so later I received 
a letter from this beekeeper in which he said he was sorry for the 
wrong he had done the birds. My arguments had raised doubts in 
his mind and, upon making further investigations, he had found the 
Artamus were taking the bee moth at dusk as they left the hives 
and that great good was being done by the birds clearing the hives 
of this most destructive moth to the bees. As far as South 
Australia is concerned, this bird is becoming scarcer in numbers each year.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby sends me : “ This Wood-Swallow has a very 
extensive range, being present in all parts of South Australia I have 
visited, and I have found it common in the New England district 
of New South Wales, near the Queensland border, at an altitude of 
over 2,000 ft. In the neighbourhood of Adelaide, S.A., they come 
down to the plains in winter and are seen in quite large flocks at 
that season in the park lands round the city. During the nesting 
season they keep more to the hills, where it is one of the commonest birds. 
They are very destructive to bees, perching near the hives and 
swooping off from time to time to catch some luckless bee. This 
habit has led to their often being called ‘ Bee-eaters,’ and apiarists 
wage incessant war upon them. I have several times on cold early 
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