.VESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTFAlfAN BIKDS. 30 1 



but in tliis instance situated about fifty feel from tlic ground, near the 

 top of a oucalypt, by a small sfci-cani, in open forast counti7. One of 

 the parent birds was secm-ed with the nest and eggs. The eggs, as in 

 the former instance, were slightly iniubatcil. The ehief lirccding months 

 are October, November, and December. 



To persons who may still contend tii.Tt the RnfoiH TJutehci- Bird 

 (C. rtifexreiii:) is the female or immature bird of the Black species, will 

 find " a nut to crack " in the following note by Mr. llan-y Barnard 

 when he was at Cape York : " I saw one nest of the Quoy Butcher Bird 

 with three voung ones fullv-fledged. They were all hlark." 



242. — Cdacticus NiGRiGULAKis, Gould. — (9.'3) 

 BLACK-THROATED BUTCHEB I'.IHI) 



Figure— GowXA : Birds of Australia, fnl . vol. ii , pi. .(o. 



Ifi/frence —Ca.t. Birds Brit. Mils., vol. viii., p. 95. 



Previous Desciif'tions of E^'^s. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) ; also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 181 (1865) ; North : Anstn, Mus Cat., p. 62, 



pi. 9, fig. 8(1889). 



Geographical Distrihiitinri. — Australia, except West. 



Nesf. — Similar to that of ('. dextritrtar, but larger, composed of fine 

 de:id sticks or twigs, lined compactly with gi-aases, rootlets, &c., and placed 

 in forked branches or brandilets of a horizontal limb of a tree. Dimen- 

 sions over all, 9 or 10 inches by '\\ inches in dc|)lli ; egg cavity, 4J. inches 

 across by 2 inches deep. 



.^////■«. — Clutch, three to four, occasionally five ; stout oval in shape ; 

 texture of shell fine; surface glossy; colour, brownish-olive or greyish- 

 brown, faintly spotted all over with a darker shade of the same colour 

 or umber, thickest or in the fonn of a clouded patch about the apex. 

 Here and there are ink-like dots. Dimensions in inches of a proper 

 clutch: (1) 1-34 X -98, (2) 1-31 x -97, (,3) 1-3 x -98, (4) 1-29 x -97. 

 (Plate 12.) 



Ohserrnti'itu. — This Butcher Bird is comparatively large, being 

 between thirteen and fourteen inches in length. The head, neck, and 

 chest arc conspicuous for their blackness, hence the specific name, nigri- 

 r/iihiriii, meaning black-throated. The rest of the plumage is black and 

 white, the bird resembling a miniature Magpie, but with the under- 

 siu-face white instead of black a,s in the Magpies. The bill is load-colour, 

 ))assing into a darker shade at the tip, with its characteristic notch. 

 I first made the acquaintance of this bird — beautiful indeed, both as 

 regards plumage and song — at the jimction of the rivers Murray and 

 Darling, in 1877. Subsequently I met it in other parts of Riverina and 

 Queensland, which latter place, together witli nllier localities in Northern 

 Australia, is probably its tnie home. 



