68 
HORN EXPEDITION—AVES, 
opportunity of watching many of them tunnelling in a bank of the river, 
preparatory to nesting. Some of these tunnels were twenty-four inches long, but 
Avere all unhnished. The work incidental to nest construction with such slender 
tools as their bill and feet must be very great. At Henbury they were seen flying 
in company with the Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)d\ 
No. 21. Artamus melanops, Gould. Black-faced Wood Swallow. 
Artamus uielanops, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1865, p. 198; id., Suppl. Bds. 
Austr., fob Voh, pi. 7 (1869); North, Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds., p. 46, pi. viii., 
hg. 13 (1889); Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. Bds., Vol. XIII., p. 17 (1890). 
One adult male, Darwent Creek. Extent of wing, five inches. There is a 
great variation in the size of this species, even in birds obtained in the same 
locality. In a number of adult .specimens fi’om the western district of New South 
Wales the length of the wing varies from 4‘7 to 5 inches. The females of this 
species may be easily distinguished from the males by having their under tail- 
coverts largely tipped with white. 
No. 22. Pardalotus ornatus, Temminck. Striated Pardalote. 
Pardalotus ornatus, Temrn., PI. Col., pi. 394, fig. I (I<826) ; Sharpe, Brit. 
Mus. Cat. Bds., Vol. X., p. 55 (1885); North, Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds., p. 50 
(1889). 
Pardalohis striatus, Gould, Bds. Austr., fob. Yob II., pb 38. (1848); Sturt, 
Exped. Centr. Austr., Vol. II., App. p. 21 (1849). 
A. $ juv. sk., Stevenson’s Creek. 
B. (? ad. sk., Alice Well. • 
The crimson alar speculum in the adult specimen is smaller and duller in 
colour than in southern and eastern Australian birds. 
The young of this species do not assume the adult colouring from the nest, as 
stated by Gould. Young birds that have just left the nest are very much paler 
and have all the under surface more uniformly washed with pale yellow; the fore¬ 
head and crown of the head are dull brown, the former strongly washed with 
yellow, and the yellow spot above the lores, which are greyish-white, is not so well 
defined, and there is only a faint indication of the white superciliary stripe. 
When slightly older the forehead is faintly washed with yellow, and some of the 
feathers on the crown of the head are black streaked down the centre with wdiite ; 
