16 COEVID.?:. 



on the lower neck bein^^' much richer in colour. Youn;,' birds retain this pale fawn-brown wash 

 on the neck when otherwise they are in full plumage. Like the Hlack and the White-backed 

 Magpies ( Gymnorhina tibicen and G. leuconota), the young of both the Pied and the Grey Crow- 

 Shrike frequently leave their nests before they can fly very far, and are easily run down and 

 captured. I observed several young ones about the bush at Bundanoon in November. 



Mr. Keartland informs me that near the Werribee Gorge, in \'ictoria, he saw five nests of 

 this species wathin an acre of ground. They were placed on the horizontal branches of Stringy- 

 bark and Box trees, and all contained young, the brood ranging from one to three. 



September, and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season. 



Strepera plumbea. 



LEAD-COLOURED CROW-SURIKE. 

 Slrepf.ra pliunbea. Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 184G, p. 20. 

 Strepera plumbea (sub-sp.), Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. III., p. GO (l."<77). 



Adult m.\le — General colour dark leaden-grey, slightly lighter un llie uiidi:r parts . fai'.i' blackish; 

 wiuga black, outer webs of secondaries loashed with grey : tips of the qnilU and the basal half of the 

 inner webs of the outer primaries ivhite ; tail black, all bnt the livo ceyitral feathers largely lipped 

 ?('ith K'hite: under tail coverts white; bill anil legs black ; iris yellow. Total length ,'0 inches, 

 wing 11, tail .''■..', hill ,i'<i, tarsus 2-tJ. 



Adult female — Similar to the male in plumage, bnt slightly smaller. 



Distribution. — W'est Australia. 

 ^(s\ OrLD, who originally described Strepera plumbea in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 V«_J| Society in 1846, unites it with the preceding species in his "Handbook to the Birds of 

 Australia, "■' but Dr. Sharpe has accorded it sub-specific rank in the "Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum." I As 5. cuneicaudata is not found in South Australia, and there is no inter- 

 gradation between the eastern and western races, I have here kept them separate, as the 

 western birds may be easily distinguished by their darker plumage, and average thinner and 

 straighter bills. In other respects the two races are alike. I find considerable variation in the 

 size of adult specimens of 6'. plumbea, but, as in other species of the genus, the male is slightly 

 larger; the wing-measurement of adult males varying from lo to 11-5 inches. Some specimens 

 have the primaries narrowly edged with white at the tip. 



Gilbert states that in West Australia he mostly met with it in the thickly-wooded forests, 

 singly or in pairs, feeding on the ground with a gait and manner very much resembling the 

 common Crow. 



Mr. George Masters, who was collecting at King George's Sound, Western Australia, in 

 March, 1866, on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, informs me that this species 

 was very numerous in that neighbourhood, and its habits and mode of nidification are precisely 

 similar to those of the eastern representative, 6'. cuneicaudata. In the original description, 

 Gould gives the colour of the iris of this species as black ; and by Dr. Sharpe in the " Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum," as brown; but in the specimens obtained by Mr. Masters, and 

 in a pair recently received from the Perth Museum, and others examined by me, it was noted 

 as yellow, as in all other species of this genus. 



The eggs are usually two, sometimes three in number, for a sitting; oval, or elongate-oval 

 in form, the shell being close-grained and its surface smooth and slightly lustrous. They vary 



* Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i.. p. 173 (1865). 

 tCat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol, iii., p. 60 (1877). 



