Fig. 118.–Waxwing. Ampelis garrulus. × ⅓. (From Bird Life in Sweden.)
Fam. XV. Artamidae.–The "Wood-Swallows" constitute a group of very doubtful position, ranging from the Australian to the Indian Region and in one case (Pseudochelidon) to West Africa. In the last-named the bill is broad, but elsewhere it is long, pointed, and slightly curved, with wide gape. The metatarsi are short and strong; the wings are much elongated; the tail is short and occasionally emarginate, with soft, exserted shafts to the rectrices in Pseudochelidon, which is glossy greenish-black with red beak and feet. Artamus, where powder-down patches occur on the sides, thighs, and lower back, exhibits black, brown, rufous, or grey tints, relieved by white–especially below, or towards the tip of the tail; the bill is blue with black extremity, the feet are greyish. The sexes hardly differ.
These woodland birds often float nearly motionless in the air, occasionally moving ahead with a few strokes of the wing; at other times they wheel and twist about like Swifts. They hawk for insects, or sally after them from their perches, feeding also upon the ground, on the larvae and on seeds. Congregating like Swallows, they have in Australia a curious habit of hanging in ball-like masses from the branches; the note is plaintive or chirping. The nests, often found in close proximity, are placed in forks of trees, on their side-shoots, in holes, behind loose bark, in deserted habitations of other birds, or in bushes; the outer materials being twigs and grass, those of the lining fibres and feathers. From two to four white, greenish, or flesh-coloured eggs are deposited, spotted and streaked with umber, red-brown, grey, lilac, or occasionally black.
Fam. XVI. Laniidae.–Few Families are more difficult to define than this. A typical Shrike is easily recognised; but such forms as Pachycephala and Hemipus are closely connected with the Muscicapidae; Calicalicus and Neolestes with the Pycnonotidae; Gymnorhina and its allies with the Corvidae; while some authors include the Campephagidae. Dr. Gadow[[287]] recognises five Sub-families: (1) Gymnorhininae, (2) Malaconotinae, (3) Pachycephalinae, (4) Laniinae, and (5) Vireoninae; but the last-named is here allowed Family rank, while Prionopinae is admitted in its place.
The bill is stout, notched, and often strongly hooked, while it is either curved or straight; in Falcunculus it is more than usually compressed, in Rhectes the maxilla has the edge finely serrated, in Xenopirostris the mandible is upcurved, leaving a distinct gap above it. In the Gymnorhininae the culmen is long, straight, and slightly rounded, with slit-like nostrils near the middle. The variable metatarsus is very strong in the larger forms, and much weaker in the Prionopinae; it is perhaps shortest in the Malaconotinae, where–as in all the Family–the scutes tend more or less to fuse. In Calicalicus and Nicator the basal joints of the third and fourth toes are united. The wings–usually moderate–may be very long and pointed, as in Gymnorhina and Pityriasis, or abbreviated and much rounded, as in Telephonus and Laniarius; the rather short tail is rarely emarginate, but frequently has acuminate feathers; while it may be square or rounded, or at times graduated, as in Laniarius, Laniellus, Paeoptera, Telephonus, Ptererythrius, some species of Lanius, and still more Urolestes, where the two median rectrices are exceptionally elongated. Falcunculus and Oreoeca have well-developed erectile crests; Rhectes, Sigmodus, Pseudorhectes, and Melanorhectes also exhibit lengthened head-plumes; Platylophus has these feathers broad and extraordinarily long; while Prionops has in addition frontal feathers overhanging the nostrils. Pityriasis has a bare yellow crown, the ear-coverts and lower throat being covered by brown bristles with red bases: Leptopterus, Prionops, and Sigmodus have a fleshy wattle round the eye. Rictal and nasal hairs may be highly developed or absent. The sexes are generally similar, except in the Pachycephalinae, and to some extent in the Prionopinae.
Sub-fam. 1. Gymnorhininae.–The remarkable red and black Pityriasis gymnocephala inhabits Borneo; the black and white Gymnorhina Australia, with Tasmania; the black, white, and grey Strepera the same countries, Cracticus Papuasia also. Gymnorhina and Cracticus have the beak bluish-white. Strepera occurs in parties in open wooded districts or swamps, feeding chiefly upon the ground on insects, their larvae, and a little fruit; while it runs, hops, or leaps from branch to branch with great agility, but generally flies low and feebly. It is a bold bird with a shrill, ringing, oft-repeated cry. The nest, as large as that of a Crow, is placed in the fork of a low tree, and is formed of sticks and twigs with a lining of bark, grass, leaves, wool, or hair; three or four pale chocolate- or reddish-brown eggs, with faint red or lilac markings, being deposited. Gymnorhina, the Piping Crow, resembles Strepera in habits, though its single, clear notes are somewhat different, and it can be taught to whistle or mimic. G. hyperleuca of Tasmania is called the Organ-bird, as Cyphorhinus (p. 522) is in Amazonia. The eggs vary from brown to whitish, bright green, or sky blue, with smears, dashes, spots, or freckles of lilac and brown. The shy Cracticus is more arboreal, and eats mice, young birds, lizards, and even crabs, in addition to insects, upon which C. destructor darts like a Flycatcher, impaling its prey subsequently after the fashion of a Shrike. The cry in this genus bears a general resemblance to that of the above forms; the eggs are equally variable, and may have zonal markings.
Sub-fam. 2. Malaconotinae.–These African and Indian birds are commonly black, white, and chestnut; Laniarius, however, is chiefly red, green, and yellow; Nicator, Neolestes, and several species of Ptererythrius shew much yellow and green; while Artamia leucocephala is greenish-black, and A. bicolor chiefly cobalt, both having the head and under parts white. The feathers of the back are very broad, soft, and fluffy. Vanga, Artamia, Xenopirostris, and Calicalicus are peculiar to Madagascar; unless Clytorhynchus pachycephaloïdes of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides be referred to Xenopirostris. Between X. polleni and Tylas eduardi (Pycnonotidae) a most curious instance of "unconscious mimicry" exists. The retiring members of this Sub-family are commonly seen hopping or climbing about thick undergrowth in search of insects and their larvae, or hunting for worms and spiders on the ground; they run well and fly fairly, while some forms, as Dryoscopus cubla and D. rufiventris, puff out their feathers until the body resembles a black and white ball. The voice of Laniarius rubiginosus has been compared to that of a Nightingale, and other species utter ringing notes, sweet or melancholy whistles, or at times loud, discordant cries or "churrs." The nest–where known–consists of twigs, grass, wool, hair, and feathers, and contains from three to five greenish-white eggs with brown spots; it is placed in a bush, or among close-growing plants. The male occasionally incubates.
Sub-fam. 3. Pachycephalinae.–This group, which extends from most of Polynesia and Australia to Tenasserim and the Great Sunda Islands, shews brown, black, white, grey, yellow, and olive hues, the yellow being somewhat characteristic. The majority of the members hop actively about leafy trees, or search the ground for insects, their larvae, and berries; Falcunculus takes short, quick flights, clings to the boughs like a Tit, and often tears off the bark; while Pachycephala simplex prefers swampy ground, and behaves like a Flycatcher. Some species have a low, mournful, reiterated note, others a continuous whistle, often ending with a smacking sound, others again have a sweet song. The nest of Pachycephala is a neat, though sometimes frail, cup of twigs, roots, and grasses, often placed on horizontal boughs, and containing three or four creamy or brownish eggs, with scattered or zonal umber markings and a few lilac spots; Falcunculus usually selects a gum-tree, and uses bark, grass, and cobwebs, laying two or three elongated whitish eggs, with olive, black, and greyish dots or lines; those of Oreoeca are bluer.
