108 PRIONOPID.E. 



Queensland, are slightly smaller, and lighter on the under surface, and are almost intermediate 

 between the present species and its smaller and near ally G. hypohiicus. 



The \'aried Cuckoo-Shrike chiefly frequents open forest and thickly-timbered lands. At 

 Wellington, New South Wales, and on the Clarence River, I met with it in pairs, resorting 

 to the higher limbs of the tallest trees. Near Sydney I have observed, during June and July, 

 a few of these birds on the highlands of the Milson's Point railway-line, but they are by no 

 means common, and I have never known them remain to breed. It is unobtrusive in habits, 

 hopping quietly from limb to limb, or leafy spray, while engaged in its search for insects or 

 their larvae, and occasionally uttering a low rolling note. The note of this species somewhat 

 resembles that of its larger congener, G. mdanops, and is difficult to syllabicate. 



The stomachs of those birds I have examined, contained principally caterpillars and soft- 

 bodied insects, small fruits, and berries. About the outlying western suburbs of Sydney, where 

 it is an occasional visitant, and also in other parts of the State, it is known by the name of 

 " Lesser Blue Jay." 



The nest of this species is built in the angle of a forked horizontal branch, and is similar in 

 construction to that of the Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, but is slightly smaller. It is somewhat 

 triangular in shape, and is a nearly flat structure with a slight depression in the centre, and is 

 formed of thin short pieces of twig, or the thread-like leaves of the Casiiarina, held together with 

 cobweb, and in some instances ornamented with lichens on the exposed outer portion and rim. 

 An average nest measures four inches in external diameter, and one inch and a (juartcr in 

 depth; and the small inner saucer-shaped depression, tiiree inches in diameter by tiiree quarters 

 of an inch in depth. The nest is usually built near the extremity of a thin horizontal limb of a 

 Eucalyptus or An>^ophora, at a height varying usually from twenty to sixty feet from the ground, 

 but a bird I saw at Copmanhurst, in November, 1898, was just starting its nest in the thin 

 fork of a grey gum at an altitude of fully eighty feet. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, and vary in size, shape, colour, and 

 disposition of markings, large eggs of this species being indistinguishable from small specimens 

 of G. indaiwps, and eggs taken in the northern limit of its range being similar to those of 

 G. hypoleucus. They are oval to rounded oval in form, the shell being close grained and its 

 surface smooth and usually lustrous. In ground colour they \ary from a dark asparagus-green 

 to a \ery pale olive-green, some specimens being evenly dotted and spotted over the surface of 

 the shell with different shades of purplish and umber-brown; others are heavily blotched with 

 pale reddish -brown, intermingled with a few indistinct underlying markings of violet-grey. As 

 a rule the markings are evenly distributed, but in some specimens they are larger and pre- 

 dominate on the thicker end. .A. set of three, taken at Copmanhurst, measures: — (A) 1-22 x 0-9 

 inches; (B) 1-28 x o-g inches; (C) i'24 x 0-87 inches. A set of twt), taken at Warren, measures: — 

 (A) i'i8xo-85 inches; (B) i-i8xo'82 inches. A set of two, from Broad Sound, Queensland, 

 measures: — (.A) i-i x 0-82 inches; (B) i-i5xo'83 inches. 



Immature birds have the head, hind-neck, throat, sides of the neck, and chest black; the 

 feathers of the breast and upper portion of the abdomen with blackish centres or sagittate 

 markings. Gradually these black feathers change into grey, first on the crown of the head and 

 hind neck, then on the feathers of the throat and chest, which have whitish edges. In slightly 

 older birds, signs of immaturity remain in the black mottlings to the feathers on the sides of 

 the neck and chest, and indistinct dusky barrings to the feathers of the breast. The last traces 

 of youth are exhibited in the ear-coverts, which have dusky bases or centres, and are somewhat 

 darker than in the fully adult bird. Immature birds were obtained by Mr. George Masters in 

 the first of the above described stages of plumage at Rope's Creek, about thirty miles from 

 Sydney, in January, and a similar specimen was obtained by mc. at Wellington, New South 

 ^Vales, in July. 



