88 PKIOXOPID.E. 



very common about the Bloomfield River, and is usually met with in pairs, in the low under- 

 growth, searching for insects and berries, which constitute its food. They breed from October 

 to January, and often select as anesting site a blackbutt, or a Moreton Bay Ash, in which the 

 Helmeted Friar-bird and Vellow-breasted Fig-bird have their nests. Tiie nest is composed 

 almost entirely of the curly tendrils of vines, and is suspended by the rim to a thin fork at the 

 end of an overhanging branch. They lay four and often five eggs for a sitting. After the 

 breeding season is over, at the end of February, with nearly e\'ery flock of Wliite-bellied 

 Cuckoo-shrikes, will be seen several Drongo-shrikes." 



In Xew South Wales it breeds, so far as I am aware, only in the northern coastal rivers 

 district. I did not meet with it in the Upper Clarence District, but Mr. George Savidge found 

 it breeding in the Cangai Scrubs, about forty miles from Copmanhurst, the week after I left. 

 He informs me that the nests were nearly all built in thin horizontal forks at the e.\treme ends 

 of branches of box-trees, at a height varying from thirty to forty feet from the ground. In 

 every instance the scoop had to be used to abstract the eggs. It breeds in that locality mostly 

 in November and December, tliree or four eggs being the usual number laid for a sitting, but 

 on one occasion he found a nest containing five eggs. 



Fledgelings are blackish-brown above and below; wings and tail black, slightly glossed with 

 metallic steel-green. Wing 4-8 inches. 



October and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season in Eastern 

 Queensland and Xorth-eastern Xew South Wales. 



Family PRIONOPID^. 

 Sub-Family PRIONOPIN^. 



Grallina picata. 



MAGPIE-L\RK. 

 Gracula picata, Lath., Ind. Orn , Suppl., p. xxix., (1801). 

 Grallina ansiratis, Gould, Bds. Au.str., fol.. Vol. IT., pi. •"»4 (1848). 



Grallina picata, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. [, p 188 (186-5); Shappe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus , 

 Vol. III., p. -272 (1877). 



Adult male — General colour above blue-black ; npper ittlng -coverts white, the outer series of the 

 greater coverts black tipped with white; quills black, bases and tips of the secondaries white; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts white; tail feathers white, with a broad terminal black band, decreasing in 

 extent towards the outermost feathers which are tipped with white; a broad line above, and a narroiv 

 crescent belojv the eye rvhite; ear-coverts and sides of the neck ivhite; chin, t/iroat, and chest blue black; 

 remainder of the uiider surface pure white; bill feslty-irhite, blackish along the apical portion 0/ the 

 upper mandible; legs black; iris yelluwish-rohit<\ Total length in t/ie fesh lO'o inc/oes, niing 6'lj, 

 tail 5, bill OSo, tarsus 1~. 



Adult female — Similar to the male in platnnge, but having the lores, forehead, and thronl 

 white, and no white crescent below the eye. 



Distribution. — Xorthern Territory of South .\ustralia, Queensland, Xew South Wales, 

 Victoria, South and Central .\usiralia. Western and Xorth-western .\ustralia, Tasmania. 



