14 (JYMNORUININ.E. 



except in the wet districts, and when lie is resident in a locality you cannot choose but hear him, 

 as I do almost every day, with admiration, although he did tear my canary out of its cage. In 

 confinement, which it bears well, this bird is apt to become savage." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson writes: — '^Cractkus cinercus, known in Tasmania as the "Whistling-Dick," 

 is found chiefly in the mid-lands country and where the land is lightly timbered. But I have 

 met with odd pairs along the north-west coast, and south on the shores of D'Entrecasteaux 

 Channel. My brother the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, of Evandale, informs me that he has found 

 nests built in Banksias and Eucalypti in September and October, usually containing four, and 

 sometimes five eggs in number for a sitting." 



Through Dr. L. Holden, I have received the following note from Mr. Ernest Harrison: — 

 "The nest of the Tasmanian Butcher-bird is built of thin dry twigs put together compactly but 

 lightly. Considering the material it is very neatly made and is not thick or bulky ; looked at 

 from below the light can be seen all through it. The interior is a deep, very symmetrical saucer- 

 shaped depression neatly lined with root fibre, etc. I have usually found the nest in rather 

 stunted young gum trees, built in a clump of small branches on the side of the stem, and about 

 fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. A small dry gully on a steep hillside is a favourite place." 



The eggs are oval or elongated oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and 

 slightly lustrous. They vary in ground colour from a dull asparagus-green to a light olive and 

 pale reddish-brown, which is spotted and blotched with chestnut-red, particularly towards the 

 larger end where on some specimens they form a cap or well defined zone. Some e.xamples are 

 indistinctly marked all over with a slightly darker shade of the ground colour. They cannot be 

 distinguished from the eggs of Cradkus destructor. A set of three measure: — Length (A) 1-29 

 X o'95 inches; (B) 1-26 x o-yj inches; (C) i'28 x 0-95 inches. An elongated specimen 

 measures: — Length 1-36 x 0-96 inches. 



Cracticus nigrigularis. 



BLACK-THROATED BUTCHER-IUED. 

 Vanga nigrogidaris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1836, p. 143. 

 Cracticus nigrogularis, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 49 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr. 



Vol. I., p. 180 (1865). 

 Cracticus tiigrigularis, Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VIII., p. 95 (1883); Sharpe, Haud-1., 



Bds.. Vol. IV., p. 277 (1903). 

 Adult male — Head and neck glossy black; a broad collar around the lower portion of the hind- 

 neck white ; scajndars and back black, some of the feathers on the lower back grey; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts white ; upper wing-coverts white, some having the inner web black; quills black, the basal 

 portion of the outer webs of all but the two outermost primaries white, the outermost secondaries 

 margined rmth ichite on their inner webs which increases in extent and occtipies both ivebs on the median 

 series, the shafts alone being black ; central pair of tail feathers black, the remainder black largely tipped 

 with white, the black extending much nearer the tip on the outer web of the outermost feather , the base 

 of the outer web of all but the central pair, and the outermost feather on either side, white; throat and 

 chest glossy black; remainder of the binder siirface, the tliighs and under tail-coverts tvhite; bill bluish- 

 horn colour, blackish on the apical portion; legs and feet dark grey; iris black. Total length in 

 the flesh IS'75 inches, wing 7 '2, tail 5'9, bill 1'7 , tarsus l',5. 



Adult fe.male — Differs from the male in having those parts of the upper surface, icings and 

 tail brown that are back in the male ; crown of the head and nape a slightly darker brown, the collar 

 on the lower hind-neck dull ivhite, faintly mottled ivith brown, cheeks and ear-coverts dark brown 



