CKACTICUS. 13 



given of C. kucoptcrus are equally applicable to a very old male of C. destructor, and agree with 

 the specimens from which my descriptions of C. destructor are taken. Owing to the want of 

 adult skins from Western Australia, I am unable to state whether the distinctions pointed out 

 by Gould are of sufficient importance to warrant it being regarded as a distinct species. 



Mr. C. G. Gibson informs me that in the Erliston District, Western Australia, he found a 

 nest on the 12th September, 1905, built in a mistletoe growing on a big mulga. It was twenty 

 feet from the ground and contained three eggs much incubated. On the 9th October following 

 he found the nest of the same pair of birds also containing three incubated eggs. 



A set of three eggs are oval in form, the shell being close-grained smooth and slightly 

 lustrous. They are of a pale bluish-grey ground colour, dotted, spotted, and blotched around 

 the thicker end with reddish and chestnut-brown, the markings being confluent in many 

 places in two of the specimens; on the other they are more scattered and form an ill-defined 

 zone. Length (A) 1-22 k o-88 inches; (B) i-iS x 0-9 inches; (C) 1-2 x 0-93 inches. The 

 egg of C. Icucoptcvus is figured on Plate B. VUl., fig. IG. 



Cracticus cinereus. 



TASMANIAN BUTCHER-BIRD. 

 Yanga cinerea, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1S36, p. 1-43. 



Cracticus cinereus, Gould., Bds. Austr., fob, Vol. I., Introd., p. xx.kv. (18i8); id., Handbk. Bds. 

 Austr, Vol. I., p. 186 (1865); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 277 (1903). 



Cracticus cinereus (Subsp.), Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VIII., p. 101 (1883). 



OF Cracticus cinereus, Gould writes in his " Handbook to the Birds of Australia"*: " By some 

 ornithologists this bird may be considered only a local variety of C. torquatus. but I did 

 not fail to notice that the birds appeared very different in their respective countries, and 

 ornithologists will observe on e.xamination that a marked difference occurs in individuals from 

 Tasmania and New South Wales. 1 will not, however, afiirm that this bird is confined to 

 Tasmania, for I have lately received evidence of its also occurring on the shores of the opposite 

 part of the continent. It may be distinguished from C. torquatus by its much longer bill, and 

 when fully adult, by its grey back." 



Gould's full description of the adult male of Cracticus cinereus, is equally applicable to the 

 very old male of C. destructor. 



In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," I Dr. Gadow regards C. cinereus as only 

 subspecifically distinct from C. destructor, but on different grounds from Gould. His remarks 

 thereon are borne out by two males in the Australian Museum collection, one obtained at the 

 Ouse River by Mr. George Masters, the other at Bellerive by Dr. L. Holden. As pointed out 

 by Dr. Gadow, the Tasmanian birds are even more brownish-ashy on the back than the 

 continental specimens, there is a less e.xtent of white on the wings, and the basal half of the 

 tail feathers are slightly washed with grey, and their outer webs have conspicuous white bases. 

 I thought the latter character would enable one to distinguish the insular from the continental 

 form, and although it is generally absent, or only slightly indicated in the Museum series of 

 specimens, an adult male from Gayndah, Queensland, has the white bases to the outer webs 

 of the tail feathers as large as in Tasmanian examples. The size of the white loral patch is 

 variable in both forms. 



Mr. George Masters informs me that the note of Cracticus cinereus is quite different from that 

 of the continental species C. destructor. Dr. L. Holden writes me Cracticus cinereus is not rare, 



* Vol. I., p 186 (1865). 

 t Vol. VIII., p. loi, (1883). 



