CJRALLINA. 



89 



/-I^HIS familiar and well-known species is freely distributed in suitable localities over nearly 

 _L the whole of the Australian continent. It likewise occurs as an occasional visitant in 

 Tasmania, and Mr. E. Hartert has recorded a specimen from the little island of Koer in the Ke 

 Group.- It evinces a decided preference for the vicinity of water, and chiefly frequents open 

 forest and grass lands, and the margins of rivers and swamps. In Eastern Australia it is a 

 resident species, and is usually seen in pairs except from the beginning of March until the 

 end of July, when it congregates in flocks numbering from ten or twenty, to perhaps one 

 hundred or ' more individuals. Mr. Keartland informs me that while the Horn Scientific 

 Expedition was near Francis' Well, in Central Australia, a flock of seseral hundred of these 

 birds settled at nightfall in the trees around their camp. 



GmlUna picata v^-as hrst recorded as a Tasmaniaa species I from a specimen forwarded by 

 Dr. Lonsdale Holden to the Hobart Museum. From Dr. Holden's MS. notes, under date i5tn 

 July, iS88, I take the following extract:— "To-day I shot a female Gralliua picata on Deavin's 

 Farm at Circular Head. A pair had been observed there near the homestead for some weeks, 

 one of which has since disappeared. They fed on the ground, flying into trees when disturbed, 

 and always roosting in the same clump. This one was tame enough; the crop contained the 



remains of insects; the ovary not being large, but 

 plainly recognisable. The farm it frequented 

 is on the shores of a large marine inlet, and very 

 bare of trees. The man who lives there said 

 the birds generally resorted to marshy places 

 in the paddocks. Residents here have never 

 seen this bird before." 



This species utters a shrill squeaking note, 

 usually while perched; to which is added, 

 chiefly during flight, the clear notes resembling 

 the sound of the word "pee-wee, pee-wee, 

 pee-wee." To residents of Australia it is known 

 under several names. Those in most common 

 use in Eastern Australia are the "Magpie- 

 Lark," the name first bestowed upon it by the 

 early colonists of New South Wales, from its 

 MAopir.-LAKK strikinglv contrasted black and white plumage; 



the "Pee-wee" from its note; and the "Mud-Lark" from its habit of frequenting the margins of 

 swamps, and constructing its nest of mud. 



From Port Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. Chenery sends me the following note:-" Gral Una 

 puata is here in the winter months, but is not seen as a rule after August. It does not breed 



here." 



The Magpie-Lark passes most of its time on the ground, in search of insects and their 

 larv., which constitute the greater portion of its food. It also frequents P'^^^'-^ -'^J -'^ 

 orchards for grubs and worms, and from margins of swamps and on grass lands obtains small 

 molluscs. One species of land mollusc, of which it destroys large numbers, is an in erniediate 

 hot of fluke, that dire disease in sheep. Mr. J. A. Boyd, while resident at R.pple Creek, nea 

 Townsville. Queensland, informed me that large flocks of these birds followed the teams wh. e 

 ploughing on the sugar plantations, to feast upon the cane-eating larv. of a eetle, which a 

 Ln:d fron. the earth in son.e seasons in large numbers. Writmg on the 14th Jun. ■->. he 



* Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. 1900, p. loi. 

 t Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas., 18S8. p. xxxiii. 



