2go NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRAIIAN BIRDS. 



FAJVIILY— LANIID^ : CROW SHRIKES. 



Sub-family — Gymnorhinje. 



237. — Gymnorhina tibicen, Latham. — (92) 

 BLACK-BACKED MAGPIE. 



Figure.— Gon\A : Birds of Australia, fol , vol ii , pi 46. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus , vol viii , p gi. 



Previous Descriptions 0) £;?es. — Ramsay : Ibis. p. 300 (1865) ; Campbell : 

 Southern Science Record (1S82) ; also, Proc, Roy Soc. Victoria, 

 vol. vii., new ser., p. 212 (1894) ; North ; Austn. Mus. Cat,, pi. 7, 

 figs. 4-5 (1899). 



Geographical Dixtrihutinn. — Queen.sland, New South Wales, Victoria 

 and South Australia. 



Nest. — Open, bowl-shaped, constructed of dead sticks, twigs, and 

 coarse bark ; lined inside with strips of fine bark, grass, hair, feathers, 

 &c., and usually sitviated in the forked branches of a tree — sometimes 

 tall, at other times a low bushy one. Dimensions over all : about 13 

 inches by 8 inches in depth ; egg cavity. 5 inches across by 3i inches deep. 

 A nest observed on a fringe of mallee was decorated with numerous 

 long emu feathers artistically intenvoven round the rim. 



Egg.'!. — Clutch, three to four, occa,sionally five ; although varying in 

 shape, chiefly of a lengthened form ; the texture of the shell some- 

 what fine and glossy. Tliere are many different characteristics of 

 colouring. Three types may be singled out for description : (a ) Ground 

 colour bluish or French grey, beautifully marbled nearly over the whole 

 surface with streaks, dashes and smudges of pinkish or brownish-red. 

 In some instances the markings form a confluent patch about the apex. 

 (h) Other specimens are more greenish in ground colour, and are clouded 

 or blotched with drab. fc) Another set has a greenish ground colour, 

 but instead of reddish streaks is moderately marked with large roundish 

 spots and blotches of umber and dull slate, most of the blotches having 

 penumbra-like edges. Faint tiaces of hair-like lines also appear upon 

 the siu'face of the shell. A full clutch taken in Rivcrina measures, in 

 inches: (1) 1-46 x 1-05, (2) 1-45 x 1-05, (3) 1-44 x 1-07, (4) 1-43 x 1-08, 

 C5) 1'43 X 1-04. Another set from Queensland gives: (1) 1-53 x 1-1, 

 (21 1-49 X 1-09, (3) 1-48 X Ml. 



There is also considerable difference in the character and colour of the 

 markings of the various clutches, so much so, that it is hard to 

 understand why eggs so totally distinct should be laid by birds of the 

 same species, and that frequently in the same locality. Another " nut" 

 for the theorists on egg-colouration to crack. 



