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. [Illustration: 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.