STKEPKRA. 11 



/"(s\ Ol'LD writes of this species" — "The Stnpera aygiita is abundantly dispersed o\er Tas- 

 V_Jr mania, but is more numerous in the central parts of the island than in the districts 

 adjacent to the coast ; it also inhabits South Australia, in which country it is more scarce, and 

 all the specimens I have seen are rather smaller in size. I have never seen it in any part of 

 Xew South Wales that I have visited, neither liave specimens occurred in the numerous collections 

 from the west coast that have come under my notice. It is the largest, the boldest, and the 

 most animated species of the genus yet discovered. If not strictly gregarious, it is often seen in 

 small companies of from four to ten, and during the months of winter even a greater number are 

 to be seen congregated together. The districts most suited to its habits are open glades in the 

 forest and thinly timbered hills ; although it readily perches on the trees, its natural resort is 

 the ground, for which its form is admirably adapted, and o\er which it passes with amazing 

 rapidity, either in a succession of leaps or by running. Fruits being but sparingly diffused over 

 .\ustralia, insects necessarily constitute almost its sole food, and of these nearly every order 

 inhabiting the surface of the ground forms part of its diet ; grasshoppers are devoured with 

 great a\idity. 



"Its note is a loud, ringing, and very peculiar sound, somewhat resembling the words, c/w^, 

 clink, several times repeated, and strongly reminded me of the distant sound of the strokes on a 

 blacksmith's an\il ; and hence the name argiita appeared to me to be an appropriately specific 

 appellation for this new species. 



" All the nests I found of this species either contained young birds or were without eggs. 

 The nest, which is of a large size, is generally placed on a horizontal branch of a low tree ; it is 

 round, deep, and cup-shaped, outwardly formed of sticks, and lined with fibrous roots and other 

 fine materials." 



The eggs of Stvepera arguta are three in number for a sitting, oval in form, some specimens 

 being somewhat pointed at the smaller end, the shell being close-grained, and its surface smooth 

 and slightly lustrous. Typical eggs vary in ground colour, from a dull vinous-white to vinous- 

 grey, which is streaked, spotted, or irregularly blotched with pale-brown, and almost obsolete 

 underlying markings of dull bluish-grey. Some specimens ha\-e the markings small, well-defined, 

 and rounded ; in others, as shown in the figure, the subsurface markings are scarcely visible, 

 or are entirely absent. A set of three taken at Both well, Tasmania, on the loth August, 1S87, 

 measures as follows :— Length (A) i-8xi-2i inch; (B) i-8i x -23 inch ; (C) 179 x 1-2 inch. 

 Another set of three measures— (A) 1-85 x 1-25 incn ; (B), 1-87 x i'25 inch ; (C) 1-87 x 1-26 inch. 

 The eggs of this species may be generally distinguished by their \ery much paler ground colour, 

 and markings. 



In his :MS. notes. Dr. Lonsdale Holden writes ;— " 1 saw two or three examples of Strepem 

 arguta- between Bellerive and Rokeby, in the bush by the road side, close to the top nf the ridge, 

 over which the road passes. This species differs from 5. fiiliginosa, as regards colour, most 

 notably in having the under tail-coverts white. It has a loud, shrill, metallic cry. On the 17th 

 December, 1899, near the Styx River, four miles above Bushy Park, I observed a pair looking 

 after two young ones, just able to fly ; the latter were more slaty-coloured than the adults. In 

 the following March I saw several on the extreme top of a wooded hill, on the ridge above the 

 railway to Cambridge. I never met with the Hill Crow-shrike durini; my residence in the 

 north-western portion of Tasmania." 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species. 



* Handbk. Bds. Austr , Vol. i., p. 171 (1865). 



