g6 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



74- — Graucalus melanopSj Latham. — (103) 



BLACK-FACED CUCKOO SHRIKE. 



Figure. — Gould ; Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii.. pi 55. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv , p. 30. 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (1848), also 

 Handbook, vol. i, p. 194 (1865); North: Austn. Mus. Cat., 

 p. 74, pi. g, fig. 4 (iSSg) ; Le Souef: Victorian Naturalist, 

 vol. xvi., p. 64 (1899). 



Geographical Dixtrihutinn. — Whole of Australia, also New Zealand 

 (accidental), New Guinea, Am Islands. Ke Islaaids, Ambovna, and 

 Louisiade Archipelago. 



Nest. — Very sUght, shallow, composed of grass and short pieces of 

 straight twigs wrought together with cob-webs, forming a little sack on 

 or across the angle of a tliiu, forked horizontal limb. Not unfrequentlv a 

 dead hmb is selected high in the tree. Dimensions over all, 4i inches by 

 2J inches in depth ; egg cavity, 3J inches across by 1 inch deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two to three ; stout oval in shape, in some instances 

 inclined to pyrif orm ; texture of sheU fine ; surface glossy ; in some 

 cases exceedingly so ; colour varies from hght-green, through 

 shades of dull-green to yellowish-ohve, blotched with umber and dark 

 reddish-brown, as well as with didler-coloiired markings. Dimensions in 

 inches of a proper clutch: (1) 1-35 x -91, (2) 1-28 x -93, (3) 1-28 x -92; 

 of a small-sized pair: (1) 1-27 x -87, (2) 1-23 x -9. (Plate 7.) 



Observations. — Under various trivial vernacular names, such as Blue 

 Dove, Summer Bkd, &c., the Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike is found tlu-ough 

 the length and breadth of Aiistraha, consequently its lich green reddish- 

 mottled eggs are beautiful ornaments in nearly every oological collection. 



I well recollect the first clutch I found, wliich happened to be at 

 Murrumbeena, when that place consisted of bush. I have never since 

 taken or seen such a peculiar pair for beauty. 



The nest is so shallow and small, that it is rarely discovered, except 

 when observed by the bu-d builchng or sitting thereon. In some instances 

 Gould found the nest ornamented with the broad, white, mouse-eared 

 lichen. 



In his usual characteristic style, Mr. Hermann Lau writes : — '' I first 

 saw this bird's nest (very hard to find) January, 1864, at Allora, 

 Dalrymple Creek, between Warwick and Toowoomba (Q.) I was anxious 

 to procure its eggs to see what they were hke. The nest hung like the 

 bag of a Pelican in the horizontal brancli of a eucalypt, high up, and 

 as the branch was only of thin dimensions, I sent a boy up with a ladle 

 fastened to the point of a stick, and by cUmbing above the nest he was 

 able to ladle out two eggs, letting them fall in a blanket which I held 

 below with another man, and, seeing the prize coming, by lowering gradually 

 the blanket I secured the coveted eggs, giving the boy a shilling for his 

 trouble. The nest, although pretty looking when in its natural place, 

 when holding it, it collapsed in my hands. It represented a mass of 

 spiders' web mixed with dry gi'ass." 



