Part 27

The Plate represents the male and female, with the nest, rather less than the natural size.

GYMNORHINA LEUCONOTA: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

GYMNORHINA LEUCONOTA, Gould. White-backed Crow-Shrike.

Barita Tibicen, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de la Coq., pl. 20.—Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 345.

Goor̈e-bat, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.

This fine species of Gymnorhina, which has been confounded by the French writers with the G. Tibicen, inhabits South Australia, and extends its range as far to the eastward as the colony of New South Wales. I hear that it is tolerably abundant at Port Philip, and that it is sometimes seen on the plains near Yass. For my own part I have never met with it in New South Wales, but observed it to be rather abundant in South Australia. In the extreme shyness of its disposition it presents a remarkable contrast to the G. Tibicen; it was indeed so wary and so difficult to approach, that it required the utmost ingenuity to obtain a sufficient number of specimens necessary for my purpose. Plain and open hilly parts of the country are the localities it prefers, where it dwells much on the ground, feeding upon locusts and other insects. In size it is fully as large as any species of the genus yet discovered; it runs over the ground with great facility, and the long flights it frequently takes across the plains from one belt of trees to another, indicated greater powers of flight than is possessed by its near allies; in other parts of its economy it so nearly resembles the G. Tibicen, that it would be useless to repeat a description of them here. The same single note and early carol of small companies perched on some leafless branch of a Eucalyptus appears characteristic of all the members of the genus.

It breeds in September and October, constructing a nest of dried sticks in an upright fork of a gum- or mahogany-tree. The eggs are three in number, very long in form, and of a dull bluish white, in some instances tinged with red, marked with large bold blotches or zigzag streakings of brownish red or light chestnut; the average length of the eggs is one inch and eight lines, and breadth one inch and one line. Occasionally eggs are met with which are spotted with black or umber-brown.

The sexes when fully adult present no other outward difference than the larger size of the female. Immature birds of both sexes have the whole of the back clouded with grey, and the bill of a less pure ash-colour.

Back of the neck, back, upper and under coverts of the wings, basal portion of the spurious wing, upper and under tail-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers white; remainder of the plumage and the shafts of the white portion of the tail-feathers glossy black; irides light hazel; bill bluish lilac-purple, passing into black at the tip; legs and feet blackish grey.

The Plate represents the two sexes rather less than the size of life.

GYMNORHINA ORGANICUM: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

GYMNORHINA ORGANICUM, Gould. Tasmanian Crow-Shrike.

Cracticus hypoleucus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. p. 106; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.

Organ-Bird and White Magpie of the Colonists.

This animated and elegant bird is a native of Van Diemen’s Land, and appears to be very local in its habitat, for while it is never found below Austin’s Ferry on the southern bank of the river Derwent, it is very plentiful on the opposite side and in the interior of the country, particularly on the salt-pan plains, which would be dreary indeed were they not enlivened by the presence of this amusing bird, the Miners (Myzanthæ), and the Rose Hill Parrakeet. It is also to be met with in all the open parts of the country, in small troops of from six to twelve or more in number; but I did not observe it on the banks of the Tamar, and it certainly does not inhabit Flinders’ Island. It runs, and occasionally hops, over the surface with great quickness, but flies rather slowly, and upon alighting on a branch raises and closes one wing several times in quick succession, and in a very peculiar manner. When on the plains it utters a loud ringing call, but when perched on the dead branches of the trees soon after day-break, it pours forth a succession of notes of the strangest description that can be imagined, much resembling the sounds of a hand-organ out of tune, which has obtained for it the colonial name of the Organ-Bird. It is very easily tamed; and as it possesses the power of imitation in an extraordinary degree, it may be readily taught to whistle various tunes as well as to articulate words; it consequently soon becomes a most amusing as well as ornamental bird for the aviary or cage. The stomach is very muscular, and the food consists of insects of various kinds, grubs, caterpillars, &c., which are procured on the ground.

A nest I found was placed among the topmost branches of a high gum-tree, was round, cup-shaped, and outwardly constructed of sticks interspersed with strips of bark, short grasses, and tufts of a species of swamp grass, to which succeeded an internal lining of coarse grass, which again was lined with the inner bark of the stringy bark-tree, sheep’s wool and a few feathers, felted together and forming a dense and warm receptacle for the eggs; it was about ten inches in diameter, and about four or five inches in depth.

The eggs were four in number, of a lengthened form with a ground-colour of greenish ashy grey, spotted and blotched, particularly at the larger end, with umber-brown and bluish grey, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell; they were one inch and five lines long by one inch broad. The young assume the adult livery from the nest, and appear to keep in company of the parent birds during the first ten months of their existence.

The male has the crown of the head, cheeks, throat, all the under surface, scapularies, primaries and tips of the tail jet-black; nape of the neck, back, upper and under tail-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers white; bill dark lead-colour at the base, passing into black at the tip; legs black; irides bright hazel.

The female differs in having the nape of the neck and back grey, and the primaries and tips of the tail-feathers brownish black.

The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.

CRACTICUS NIGROGULARIS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

CRACTICUS NIGROGULARIS, Gould. Black-throated Crow-Shrike.

Vanga nigrogularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V.; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.

Cracticus varius, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 261.

The Black-throated Crow-Shrike finds a natural asylum in New South Wales, the only one of the Australian colonies in which it has yet been found, and where it is by no means rare, although the situations it affects render it somewhat local; it is a stationary species, breeding in all parts of the country suitable to its habits and mode of life; districts of rich land known as apple-tree flats, and low open undulating hills studded with large trees, are the kind of districts to which it peculiarly resorts: hence the cow-pastures at Camden, the fine park-like estate of Charles Throsby, Esq., at Bong-bong, and the entire district of the Upper Hunter, are among the localities in which it may always be found.