(iYMNOHHINA. 



remain wild and frightened and rarely emit a sound, except a disconsolate " squark," and it is a 

 kindness to restore these unfortunates to freedom again in the bush. 



In South-eastern Australia the normal breeding season commences in July or early in 

 August, and continues until the end of November, but a second brood is sometimes reared 

 during the mid-summer months. At the Redfern Railway Station, Sydney, on the 20tli 

 February, 1897, I saw young birds exposed for sale that had only recently been taken from 

 the nest. 



Gymnorhina leuconota. 



WHITE-BACKED MAGPIE. 

 Gymnorhina leuconota, (Gould) Gray, Gen. Bds., Vol II., pi. 73 (1844); Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., 

 Vol. II., pi. -17 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 176 (1865); Gadow, Cat. Bds. 

 Brit. Mus., Vol. VIII., p. 92 (1883); Sliarpe, Hand-1, Bds., Vol. IV., p. 276 (1903). 



Adult male — General colour above white; npper wing-coverts and edge of iving w/tite; bastard 

 wing and priinary coverts black., the basal half of the outer webs of the latter white; quills black, 

 slightly glossed with blue-black on their outer webs; tail tohite with a broad terminal band of black, 

 increasing in ividth towards the outermost feather on either side, which has also the outer tveb black; 

 head and nape glossy blue-black; under surface glossy blue-black, tite centre of the feathers on the 

 breast black and devoid of lustre ; thighs blackish; vent and under tail-coverts white; bill bluish-grey, 

 paler at the base, black at the tip; legs and feet black; iris reddish-brown. Total length in the flesh 

 IS inches, tving llS, tail G;5, bill 21, tarsus ^'Jf. 



Adult female — Differs from the male in being slightly smaller, in having the feathers on the 

 hind-neck ivashed witli grey, and those of the back grey tipped with white and having a distinct black 

 shaft streak; rump and upper tail-coverts grey broadly margined ivitli white, some of the feathers 

 showing a more or less well defined black shaft-streak. 



Distribution — New South Wales, Victoria, South .\ustialia. Central Australia, Western 

 Australia ? 



^^HE White-backed Crow-Shrike, or Magpie as it is generally called, is freely distributed 

 throughout southern New South Wales, the greater portion of Victoria, South and Central 

 Australia. In New South Wales, Mr. R. Grant has obtained it as far nortli as Lithgow on the 

 Blue Mountains, but it is more abundant in the south-eastern portion of the State occurring in 

 considerable numbers at Tumut, Kiandra, Yarrangobilly, Cooma, and Bombala, and decreasing 

 as the coast is approached at Twofold Bay. Relative to its habits, food, nidification, and the 

 variation in colour of its eggs, the remarks made on Gymnorliina tibiccii, equally applies to the 

 present species. 



There is a great variation in the size of specimens obtained even in the same locality. As a 

 rule adult males procured in the cold mountainous districts in the neighbourhood of Cooma and 

 Mount Kosciusko, New South Wales, are larger than others from the hot plains of South and 

 Central Australia, the latter approaching in size the smaller billed form Gymnorhina hyperleuca 

 inhabiting Tasmania. Adult males received from the Western Australian Museum, Perth, 

 and obtained at Blackwood in April 1897, may be principally distinguished by the narrower 

 terminal black band on the tail and the less extent of black on the outermost feather, the bill 

 is of the average length of extreme eastern examples, but is slightly more arched. The 

 colour of the shafts of the tail-feathers of birds from all the southern parts of the continent 

 varies, apparently with age, in some they are black, in very old birds they are white, while 

 examples may also be obtained with some of the shafts white and the remainder black. Hybrids 



