ARTAMUS MONACHUS, Tenm.

Hooded Wood-Swallow.

Artamus monachus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 343 (1850, ex Temm.).—Wallace, Ibis, 1860, p. 141.—Id.
P.Z.5. 1862, p. 340.—Gray, Hand-l. Birds, i. p. 289. no. 4272 (1869).—Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc
vill. p. 67, pl. vi. fig. 1 (1872).

 

Ir might be supposed by some of my readers, owing to my having figured the present species perched
upon a stranded snag in the middle of a stream, accompanied by a sleepy floating alligator, that this was
the usual habitat of one or other of this family of birds. Such, however, is not the case; for I myseif have
never seen them haunting rivers. But I was reading a short time ago an account of a voyage in the
Moluccas; and Artamus was described as having been observed in the position drawn by me; so I have
endeavoured to reproduce some idea of the scene.

I have always felt an especial interest in the genus drtamus, as I have probably seen more species of the
genus in their native haunts than any man living; and I have had the good fortune to describe no less than
five out of the seventeen or eighteen known. Although the Australian Wgod-Swallows are of very varied
coloration, they cannot be considered so fine as some of the insular species, such as 4. maximus, A. insignis,
or the subject of the present article, 4. monachus. These are certainly the most remarkable members of
the genus Artamus, and surpass the other species in size and beauty.

In the ‘Birds of Australia’ I have given details of the habits of the Wood-Swallows ; and doubtless the
economy of all is very similar. The present bird is found only in the island of Celebes and the adjoming
group of the Sula Islands, which lie to the eastward. Mr. Wallace says that it is found in the mountain
districts of North Celebes; and Lord Tweeddale, in his well-known paper on the birds of this island, points
out that the Sula specimens do not quite agree with Bonaparte’s original diagnosis of the species. I have,
however, the good fortune to possess a skin from Celebes itself, sent to me in exchange from the Leiden
Museum; and I have compared it with Sula-Island specimens, and cannot find any difference in coloration,
though the Celebes bird is rather longer in the wing; there can, I think, be no doubt as to their identity.

‘ihe accompanying description 1s taken from a female bird in my own collection, received from the Leiden
Museum, and marked as having been obtained in Celebes by Heer von Duivenbode; but as the sexes are
alike, the following colour will suffice for both :—

Above white from the hind neck to the tail, and including the scapulars ; head and neck all round, in-

cluding the throat, light umber brown, darker on the crown; least and median wing-coverts umber brown,

the rest of the wing dark ashy brown ;
the thighs and under wing- and tail-coverts, pure white ; edge of wing ashy
Total length 7:5 inches, culmen 1:05, wing 6:3,

tail ashy brown; under surface of body from the fore neck
downwards, and including
brown; quills grey below, whitish along the inner web.
tail 2:9, tarsus 0°75.

‘The principal figure in the Plate is drawn from the before-mentioned specimen, and represents the species

of the size of life.