CRACTICUS. 



Ca-en-as OIB^^OTICCTS, Vieillot. 

 Cracticus destructor. 



BUTCHEE-BIRD. 

 Vanga destructor, Temm., Man d' Orn., pt. i.. p. lix. 

 Cracticus destructor, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol, Vol. II., pi. 52 (1818); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 



Vol. VIII., p. 100 (1883); Sliarpe, Hand-1 Bds., Vol. IV., p. 277, (190.3). 

 Cracticus torqualus, Gould, ilaadbk., Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 184 (1865). 



Adult male — Crown of the head, ear-coi-erts, sides of neck, nape, and centre of the hind-neck 

 black; sides of hind-neck white; scapulars, back and rump grey; upper tail-coverts white; upper 

 wing-coverts like the back, the greater coverts blackish on thiir inner ivebs, the central feathers white 

 on their outer webs; quills dark brown, the inner three secondaries margined with pure white more 

 broadly on their outer webs; tail feathers blackish-brown tipped ivith tvhite, more largely on the inner 

 web and on the lateral feathers ; loral spot white; chin, cheeks, throat, and all the wider surface 

 greyish-ivhite; under tail-coverts white; bill bluish horn colour, blackish towards the tips; legs and 

 feet black, tinged with olive; iris reddish-brown. Total length in the flesh ll-2o inches, icing 6, tail 

 Ji.65, tarsus 1'2. 



Adult fem.\le— (9e?i«raZ colour above broica, slightly darker on the head, the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts ashy-olive, some of the longer feathers of the latter dull white irregularly margined with 

 brown; sides of neck fulvous, mottled with brown, some of the feathers on the centre of the hind-neck 

 centred with fulvous; wings and tail brown and with a less- amount of tvhite on them than in the 

 male; a broad loral streak dull white; cheeks and ear-coverts dark broivn, the latter streaked with 

 fulvous; chin and throat dull n-hite, remainder of the under surface and utider tail-coverts greyish- 

 tvhite tuashed with fulvous, more distinctly on the sides of the chest. 



DisdriSit^ioji— Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 

 ^T^HE Butcher-bird or "Whistling Jack," as it is sometimes called is freely distributed over 

 J_ the eastern and south-eastern portions of the Australian continent. Although inland 

 it may be found in the clumps of timber dotted over the plains, it gives decided preference for 

 open forest lands near the coast, and thickly timbered mountain ranges. In the neighbourhood 

 of cities particularly, it is decidedly shy and wary and difficult to procure, except when breeding. 

 Among a number of specimens now before me there is but little variation in those of similar 

 age procured in widely separated parts of the continent. An adult male procured by Mr. George 

 Masters at Port Lincoln, South Australia, in October 1865, is indistinguishable from another 

 obtained by him at Gayndah, Burnett River, Queensland, in August 1870, and so little does the 

 western form vary from the eastern species that Mr. Masters has labelled young birds in the 

 Australian :\Iuseum, collected by him at iMongup, Salt River, Western Australia, in February 

 1869, as Cracticus destructor. The wing-measurement of fully adult males varies from 5-6 to 6 

 inches. The above descriptions are taken from very old birds, for this species may be found 

 breeding when the adult male has the upper parts brownish-grey, with a less amount of white 

 on the wings and sides of the neck, the head dark brown, and the under surface mottled with 

 brownish- white. 



In the neighbourhood of Sydney these birds are resident throughout the year, and are fairly 

 common, usually being met with in isolated pairs at Belmore, Canterbury, Newington, Roseville 

 and the high portions of the Milson's Point Railway Line. The notes of the male are clear and 

 melodious, those uttered in autumn, being less sustained and different from its spring song. It 

 is an early riser and one of the first birds to call. 



