ARTAMUS. 
47 
ARTAMUS MINOR, Vieillot. 
Little Wood Swallow. 
Gould, Hnndbk, /Ids. Ansi., Yol. i., sp. 74, p. 146. 
Mr. George Barnard informs me that this species builds its 
nests often in the end of a hollow branch, or in hollows in the tops 
of stumps and broken trees, and posts, sometimes in old mortice 
holes in fences ; the nest is very frail and scanty structure, merely 
a few leaves, sticks, and twigs put together so loosely that it will 
scarcely bare removal. The eggs two, three, or four fora sitting, 
are of a dull white or cream colour, blotched with yellowish-brown 
and obsolete markings of slaty-grey, which in some specimens are 
heavily blotched with these colours, others spotted, blotched, 
freckled or minutely dotted ; all are more or less zoned at the 
thicker end, in some the spots are confluent, forming ill-shapen 
figures, in others round or oval and well defined. Length (T) 
0-75 x 0-55—average size; (2) 0-71 x 0-45 ; (3) 07G x 0-55 ; (4) 
0-75 x 0-57. (Ramsay, P.L.S., N.S. IF., Yol. vii., p. 407.) 
Hub. Derby, N.\V. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 
Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay 
District, Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, 
New South Wales, West and South-West Australia. ( Ramsay.)' 
ARTAMUS SUPEROIBIOSUS, Gould. 
White-eyebrowed Wood Swallow. 
Gould, Handbk. /Ids. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 79, p. 152. 
This bird is strictly migratory, arriving in Victoria to breed, 
about the end of November, and departing again at the commence¬ 
ment of March, sometimes however, three, four, and even five 
years elapse without seeing a single specimen, and it is remarkable 
when they visit us in great numbers, as far south as Melbourne, 
that it is during a period of drought in the interior. 
