Part 20

ARTAMUS SUPERCILIOSUS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

ARTAMUS SUPERCILIOSUS, Gould. White Eye-browed Wood Swallow.

Ocypterus superciliosus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. 1836, p. 142; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I. fig. 2.

There is no species of Artamus yet discovered to which the present yields the palm, either for elegance of form or for the beauty and variety of its plumage; the only known species with which it could be confounded is the Artamus rufiventer, an Indian bird with the breast similarly marked, but which is entirely destitute of the superciliary stripe of white, which has suggested the specific name; in this character and in the rich chestnut colouring of the breast, it differs from every member of its tribe inhabiting Australia. I am unable to say what is the extent of its range, but I am induced to believe that it is confined to Australia, and that in all probability it seldom leaves the interior of the country; the extreme limits of the colony of New South Wales, particularly those which border the extensive plains, being the only parts where it has yet been observed. I first met with it at Yarrundi on the Dartbrook, a tributary of the Hunter, where it was thinly dispersed among the trees growing on the stony ridges bordering the flats.

From this locality to as far as I penetrated northwards on the Namoi, as well as in the direction of the River Peel, it was distributed in similar numbers, intermingled with the Artamus sordidus, at about the ratio of one hundred pairs to the square mile, the two species appearing to live and perform the task of incubation in perfect harmony, both being frequently observed on the same tree. In their dispositions, however, and in many of their actions they are somewhat dissimilar; the bird forming the subject of the present Plate being much more shy and difficult of approach than the Artamus sordidus, which is at all times very tame; it also gives a preference to the topmost branches of the highest trees, from which it sallies forth for the capture of insects, and to which it again returns, in the usual manner of the tribe. In every part where I have observed it, it is strictly migratory, arriving in summer, and departing northwards after the breeding-season.

The nest is ever most difficult of detection, being generally placed either in a fork of the branches or in a niche near the bole of the tree, whence the bark had been partially stripped. It is a round, very shallow and frail structure, composed of small twigs and lined with fibrous roots; those I discovered contained two eggs, but I had not sufficient opportunities for ascertaining if this number was constant. Their ground-colour is dull buffy white, spotted with umber-brown, forming a zone near the larger end; in some these spots are sparingly sprinkled over the whole surface; they have also the obscure grey spotting like those of A. sordidus; the eggs are rather more than eleven lines long by eight and a half lines broad.

The male has the lores, space surrounding the eye, and the ear-coverts deep black; chin greyish black passing into blackish grey on the chest; crown of the head greyish black; over each eye a pure white stripe commencing in a point, and gradually becoming wider or spatulate in form as it proceeds towards the occiput; all the upper surface, wings and tail fuliginous grey, which is lightest on the rump and tail; all the tail-feathers tipped with white, except the outer web of the lateral feather, which is grey; under surface of the wing pure white; all the under surface rich deep chestnut; irides nearly black; bill light blue at the base, black at the tip; feet dark lead-colour.

The female has a similar distribution of colouring, but differs from her mate in the following particulars: lores and a ring surrounding the eye jet-black; only an indication of the superciliary stripe; throat grey; tail not so distinctly tipped with white; under surface light chestnut-red.

The figures are those of a male and a female of the natural size.

ARTAMUS LEUCOPYGIALIS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

ARTAMUS LEUCOPYGIALIS, Gould. White-rumped Wood Swallow.

Artamus leucopygialis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

On a careful comparison of specimens of the White-rumped Artami from India and the Indian Archipelago with those killed in Australia, I cannot but consider that at least two, if not three, species have been confounded under one name, and that the Australian bird had remained undescribed until characterized by me at the Meeting of the Zoological Society above quoted. The present species is most nearly allied to the Artamus leucorhynchus, but is readily distinguished from it by the blue colour of the bill; and I may here remark, that all the Australian birds have the bill fine pale blue, and are also considerably smaller in all their admeasurements than those of the islands to the northwards.

Van Diemen’s Land and Western Australia are the only colonies in which this bird has not been observed; its range, therefore, over the continent may be considered as very general: in South Australia and New South Wales it would appear to be migratory, visiting those parts in summer for the purpose of breeding. Among other places where I observed it in considerable abundance was Mosquito, and the other small islands near the mouth of the Hunter, and on the borders of the rivers Mokai and Namoi, situated to the northward of Liverpool Plains; in these last-mentioned localities it was breeding among the large flooded gum-trees bordering the rivers.

The breeding-season commences in September and continues until January, during which period at least two broods are reared. In the Christmas week of 1839, at which time I was on the plains of the interior, in the direction of the Namoi, the young progeny of the second brood were perched in pairs or threes together, on a dead twig near their nest, as represented in the Plate. They were constantly visited and fed by the adults, who were hawking about for insects in great numbers, some performing their evolutions above the tops and among the branches of the trees, while others were sweeping over the open plain with great rapidity of flight, making in their progress through the air the most rapid and abrupt turns; at one moment rising to a considerable altitude and the next descending to within a few feet of the ground, as the insects of which they were in pursuit arrested their attention. In the brushes, on the contrary, the flight of this bird is more soaring and of a much shorter duration, particularly when hawking in the open glades, which frequently teem with insect life. When flying near the ground the white mark on the rump shows very conspicuously, and strikingly reminds one of the House Marten of our own country.

Two nests, taken in November on a small island in Coral Bay, near the entrance of the harbour at Port Essington, were compactly formed of dried wiry grass and the fine plants growing on the beach; they were placed in a fork of a slender mangrove-tree within fifteen feet of the water, in which they were growing; but like several other Australian birds, the Artamus leucopygialis often avails itself of the deserted nests of other species instead of building one of its own. Most of those I found breeding on the Mokai had possessed themselves of the forsaken nest of the Grallina Melanoleuca, which they had rendered warm and of the proper size by slightly lining it with grasses, fibrous roots, and the narrow leaves of the Eucalypti. The eggs are generally three in number, are much lighter in colour, and more minutely spotted than those of any other species of the genus I have seen; their ground-colour is flesh-white, finely freckled and spotted with faint markings of reddish brown and grey, in some instances forming a zone at the larger end: their medium length is ten lines, and breadth seven lines and a half.

The sexes are only to be distinguished by dissection, and may be described thus: head, throat and back sooty grey; primaries and tail brownish black washed with grey; chest, all the under surface and rump pure white; irides brown; bill light bluish grey at the base, black at the tip; legs and feet mealy greenish grey.

The Plate represents a male, a female, two young ones and a nest of the natural size.

DICÆUM HIRUNDINACEUM.

J. & E. Gould del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

DICÆUM HIRUNDINACEUM. Swallow Dicæum.

Sylvia hirundinacea, Shaw, Nat. Misc., vol. iv. pl. 114.—Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. lv.

Swallow Warbler, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 250.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 613.

Pipra Desmaretii, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. i. p. 94. pl. 41.

Crimson-throated Honey-sucker, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 7.

Desmaretian Manakin, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 18.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vii. p. 240.