Part 28

It is usually seen in pairs, and from its active habits and conspicuous pied plumage, forms a rather striking object among the trees, the lower and outspreading branches of which are much more frequented by it than the higher ones; from these lower branches it often descends to the ground in search of insects and small lizards, which however form but a portion of its food, for as its powerful and strongly-hooked bill would lead us to infer, prey of a more formidable kind is often resorted to; its sanguinary disposition, in fact, leads it to feed on young birds, mice, and other small quadrupeds, which it soon kills, tears piecemeal and devours on the spot; wounded individuals on being handled inflict severe blows and lacerations on the hands of the captor, unless great care be taken to avoid them.

The nest, which is rather large and round, is very similar to that of the European Jay; those I examined were outwardly composed of sticks, neatly lined with fine fibrous roots, and generally placed on a low horizontal branch among the thick foliage.

The eggs are dark yellowish brown, spotted and clouded with markings of a darker hue, and in some instances with a few minute spots of black; their medium length is one inch and three lines by eleven lines in breadth.

The breeding-season commences in August, and continues during the four following months.

The sexes are so precisely alike in colouring, that although on comparison the female is found to be rather less than the male in all her admeasurements, they can only be distinguished with certainty by dissection.

Head, neck and chest black; hinder part of the neck, shoulders, centre of the wing, rump and under surface white; two middle tail-feathers entirely black, the remainder black largely tipped with white; bill lead-colour at the base, black at the tip; legs black; irides brown.

The young during the first autumn are very different from the adult, particularly in the colouring of the head and chest, which is light brown instead of black; the bill, as in most youthful birds, is also very different, the basal portion being dark fleshy brown instead of lead-colour.

The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size.

CRACTICUS PICATUS: Gould.

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

CRACTICUS PICATUS. Pied Crow-Shrike.

Cracticus picatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 22, 1848.

Ka-ra-a-ra, Aborigines of Port Essington.

Magpie, of the Colonists.

This is in every respect a miniature representative of the Cracticus nigrogularis of New South Wales; it must, however, be regarded as a distinct species; its much more diminutive size will warrant such a conclusion from every ornithologist who compares them.

It was found at Port Essington by Mr. Gilbert, where it exists in considerable abundance. He states that it is an extremely shy and wary bird, inhabiting the most secluded parts of the forest, and is as frequently seen searching for its food on the ground as among the topmost branches of the highest trees. In its habits, manners, mode of flight, and in its loud, discordant, organ-pipe-like voice, it closely resembles the other members of the genus. It is usually seen in pairs, or in small families of four or five. Its nest is built of sticks in the upright fork of a thickly-foliaged tree, at about thirty or forty feet from the ground.

The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects of various kinds, but principally of coleoptera.

The sexes are not to be distinguished by any markings in the plumage, but the young are dressed in a brown colouring like those of the other members of the genus.

Collar at the back of the neck, centre and edge of the wing, rump, abdomen, under tail-coverts and tips of all but the centre tail-feathers white, remainder of the plumage deep black; irides dark reddish brown; bill ash-grey, the tip black; legs and feet dark greenish grey.

The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.

CRACTICUS ARGENTEUS: Gould.

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

CRACTICUS ARGENTEUS, Gould. Silvery-backed Butcher-Bird.

Cracticus argenteus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 126.

Examples of this new species were discovered on the north coast of Australia, both by Captain Grey and B. Bynoe, Esq., to the latter of whom I am indebted for one of the specimens from which my figures were taken.

The Cracticus argenteus is directly intermediate in size between Cracticus destructor and Cracticus nigrogularis, and moreover exhibits a remarkable participation in the colouring of those two species; having the white throat and chest of the former, and the parti-coloured wings, conspicuous white rump, and white-tipped tail of the latter; it differs, however, from both, as well as from all the other members of the genus, in the light or silvery grey colouring of the back, and hence the term of argenteus has been applied to it.

No account of its habits has yet been received, but they doubtless resemble those of the other species of the genus.

Crown of the head, ear-coverts, shoulders, primaries, and all the tail-feathers for three-fourths of their length from the base, black; back silvery grey; throat, all the under surface, sides of the neck, some of the wing-coverts and the margins of several of the secondaries, rump, and tips of the tail-feathers pure white; bill horn-colour; feet blackish brown.