12 OYMNORHININ.E. 



of a Gilbert's Thickhead, which was thrown to him he picked up, and after taking two or three 

 grips to get a good balance flew away with it to the scrub about half a mile distant." 



Although the Butcher-bird is, as a rule, remarkably shy and wary in a wild state, when 

 takan from the nest and domesticated it becomes remarkably fearless and trustful. Comparatively 

 too, for its size, it is the most courageous of Australian birds. A fledgeling I caught in the bush 

 and reared, used to pass the day among the shrubs in the garden and usually return to its cage 

 at night. It used to fly on to my hand, perch on one of my fingers, whistle a few bars it had 

 picked up, or preen its feathers. When I was seated at a table reading, it would lie down flat 

 on its back and go to sleep in the palm of my hand. It was however, most jealous of other birds. 

 A wounded Trichoglossus concinnus, it seized by the tail feathers and drew it backwards along the 

 floor. A Skylark (Alauda arvensis) let out of its cage it seized by the neck, and which I had to 

 quickly rescue. A stuffed specimen of Strix delicatiila was then placed on the floor, which frightened 

 it when it was first put down, but ultimately the Butcher-bird made terrific onslaughts on it, as it 

 did afterwards on a stuft'ed male Menura victoria, a veritable living pigmy attacking a stuffed 

 giant. Its chief delight was to capture a mouse, which would afford amusement to it for a 

 quarter of an hour or more, before death freed it from its tormentor. On several occasions I 

 attempted to take the mouse away, but the bird holding it in its bill and lowermg its head 

 with outspread wings would entirely hide it from me. (3n catching the mouse by the tail the 

 bird would hold on to the body with its bill and allow itself to be lifted up in the air, but never 

 once let go the firm grip in which it held its prey. 



The normal breeding season of this species in Eastern Australia is August and the four 

 following months, nests with fresh eggs, in the vicinity of Sydney, being more numerous in 

 September, although a set of five heavily incubated eggs was taken at Belmore as early as the 

 31st August, 1893. At Roseville a pair have bred in the trees close to my house for several 

 seasons, and in 1902 I observed them with fledgelings that had recently left the nest on the 

 26th December. At Enfield on the 27th Mav, 1S94 I met a boy in the bush who had in his 

 possession a nearly fledged young Butcher-bird which he informed me he had just taken from 

 the nest. This was an unusual time for this species to breed, but was doubtless owing to 

 the spring-like weather at that time and the two preceding months. 



Cracticus leucopterus. 



WHITE-WIXGED BUTCHER- BIRD. 

 Cractictis leucopterus, Gould, Bds. Austr. Introd., fol.. Vol. I., p. xxxv. (1.S4S) ; id., Handbk. 



Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 187 (18G.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VIII., p. 98, (1883); 



Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 277 (1903). 

 ||aN his Introduction to the "Birds of Australia''" Gould remarks: '^Cracticus kucoptcins, which 

 J- inhabits Western Australia, is very closely allied to C. tovquatiis and C. ciiieveus, but differs 

 from the former in the white mark on the wings being much more extensive, and from the latter 

 in its smaller size." In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, "f Dr. H. Gadow in 

 describing C. leucopterus gives the habitat as North-eastern and Western Australia, and writes : 

 " In order to show that there is no difference in size between the specimens from Queensland 

 and those from Perth, I give the measurements of a series of specimens." If the specimens 

 referred to by Dr. Gadow are properly localized, it shows that the western does not difler from 

 the eastern form C. destructor. The distinguishing characters given to the latter by Dr. Gadow 

 in his key to the species of the genus Cracticus \ are those of an ordinary adult male, while those 



* Vol. I., Introd., p xxxv (1848) 



f Vol. VIII., p. 99 (1883). 



J I.oc. cit , p. 94, (1883). 



