4 CORVID.E. 



plains, its principal habitat in this portion of the colony being a strip of lightly timbered land, 

 some few miles in width, situated between the plains and the densely timbered scrubby back 

 country. In this belt the Leopard-tree" is found, in which almost exclusively the nests of this 

 species are placed. It is a tree of moderate height, averaging from thirty to forty feet, but has 

 extremely long, slender, and naked branches, terminating in a thick bunch of twigs and leaves, 

 and in the topmost portion of it the nest is constructed. 



" This species is by far less numerous than Corone australis, and unlike that bird it is not grega- 

 rious, being generally seen in pairs, and seldom in companies of more than four or fixe individuals. 

 It is not mischievous or destructive, its food consisting chiefly of insects and small reptiles, to 

 which are added seeds and berries. The note of this bird is represented by the word ' car ' 

 repeated six or eight tiines in succession, and in a very shrill high key. 



" The nest is similar to that of Corone australis, but smaller and more neatly made ; it is an 

 open bowl-shaped structure, outwardly formed of sticks, and lined inside with bark fibre, wool, 

 fur, &.C. It averages externally twelve inches in diameter by a depth of nine inches, and inter- 

 nally seven inches across by three inches and a half in depth. The eggs vary from three to five 

 in number for a sitting, and they are usually deposited during the months of September and 

 October. I have never handled the nestlings, so am unable to give the colour of the iris, but in 

 the adults of both sexes they are white." 



Regarding this species Mr. G. .\. Heartland writes me as follows: — "The small white-eyed 

 Crows pay occasional summer visits to \'ictoria, but when they arri\^ it is in flocks of many 

 hundreds. They either follow the myriads of grasshoppers from north to south, or time their 

 visit to feed upon a species of ground-burrowing beetle. During one season they were unusually 

 numerous on the plains at Little River, feasting on these beetles as they emerged from their 

 burrows in the ground. I fired, killing four, and on picking them up was struck with their 

 small size. On turning back the feathers of the head and neck, I observed that the basal 

 portion of them was pure white ; so, too, was the iris. On mentioning the matter to my 

 brother-in-law, who had a small station at Hedi, he said that the Crows were regarded with 

 great favour by the graziers and farmers in the neighbourhood, for although the birds were so 

 numerous, they never interfered with the sheep, but seemed to live entirely on insect diet." 



Of a set of four eggs taken by Mr. Bennett on ist September, 1884, at Ivanhoe, three 

 are elongate and compressed ovals, and the other oval and much smaller ; the shell of all being 

 close-grained and its surface lustrous. The ground colour is of a pale greenish-grey which is 

 almost uniformly marked in the larger specimens with numerous very fine and almost obsolete 

 scratches of bright umber ; the markings on the smaller specimen are intermingled on the larger 

 end with dots, spots, and small blotches of olive-brown. Length (A) 175 x i inches; (B) 1-65 x 

 1-02 inches; (C) 1-72 x i-02 inches; (D) 1-45 x 1-02 inch. A set of three, taken by Mr. Bennett at 

 Mossgiel in November, 1886, is somewhat similarly marked, but they are oval in form and not 

 so lustrous. 



Immature birds have the iris brown. 



* FUnderxia iiniciilusa, F. v. M. 



