16 GYMNORHININ.E. 



The clear and prolonjjed notes uttered by the male are among the most musical of those of 

 any of our Australian birds, and can be heard a considerable distance away. If the bird 

 were clad in sombre hue, instead of a conspicuous and strikingly contrasted plumage, its "native 

 wood notes wild" alone would render it one, if not the most attractive of all our arboreal species. 

 It is also one of the most wary birds I have stalked, generally flying one hundred yards or more 

 when disturbed, and selecting a bare lateral branch of an isolated tree where it was almost 

 impossible to approach within shooting range unobserved. 



Its food consists of insects, principally beetles, crickets, also mice, reptiles, and small birds. 



While resident at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter sent me the 

 following notes : — " Cracticiis nigrigulans occurs inland wherever patches of timber afford it 

 shelter and food. It has a beautiful rich flute-like song, and when moonlight, I have heard it 

 from two a.m. in the morning until sunrise. I took a nest with four eggs inland from here on 

 the 20th July, 1900. It was a deep structure and built in a species of mallee. My attention 

 was attracted to it by seeing the owners driving off some inaurading Ravens. I shot both birds 

 as I had not before come across them." 



Mr. C. G. Gibson informs me that in the vicinity of the Mount Margaret Goldfield, in the 

 Erliston District, Western Australia, he found a nest on the 13th August, 1905, built in a bull- 

 oak twenty feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs, and another on the loth September 

 following, also in a bull-oak, with three slightly incubated eggs. 



The following notes have been extracted from information sent me at various times bv the 

 late Mr. K. H. Bennett while resident at Yandembah Station in the Lachlan District, Xew 

 South Wales: — "Cracficus mgrigularis is found here alike in the bush covered sandhills on the 

 plains, and in the densely timbered back country, Gould I observe makes no mention of the 

 note of this bird, which in point of melody far surpasses that of Gymnorhina tihicen. Near the 

 homestead is a detached building with thatched roof used as a dairv and meat-house, a space 

 being left for ventilation of six inches between the top of the walls and the roof. At any hour 

 of the day Black-throated Butcher-birds may be observed going in through the opening for the 

 purpose of picking up the particles of meat left on the chopping bench. Indeed the carcass of 

 each sheep hung up there, has to be enveloped in a bag to protect it from these birds. They 

 are so tame that they will merely fly out on one entering the place and return again as soon as 

 the person has quitted it. A pair have bred in one or other of the trees close to the house year 

 after year. The young birds of each year remain with the parents for about fifteen months, 

 after that only the original pair stay in the trees around the house. The pair of young ones of 

 last year are still here now on the i8th October, 1890, and were constantly in the tree in which 

 the parents had their nest until after the young ones are hatched. A fortnight ago, I took these 

 young ones and placed them in a cage on the verandah. Ever since they have been in con- 

 finement they have been fed by the young birds of the previous year, whilst their parents, 

 although always about the garden and saw them plainly, never came near them." 



Later on I frequently saw the birds referred to above which Mr. Bennett had in captivity 

 at Ashtield. Sparrows in search of food, who ventured in their spacious aviary fell an easy prey, 

 so also did at various times the greater portion of a brood of chickens, who when unwittingly 

 passing it, were bodily dragged in by the Butcher-birds through the loosely meshed wires, some 

 of the victims being firmly wedged between upright acute angled forks of a tree placed in the 

 aviary. 



The nest is an open structure irregularly formed externally of thin sticks and twigs, and 

 the inside, which is cup-shaped, is lined with fibrous rootlets and coarse grasses. An average 

 nest measures externally nine inches in diameter by five inches in depth, the inner cup measuring 



