CRACTICUS. 19 



in the TuUy and Murray River scrubs."- It is beautifully figured in the " Birds of New Guinea" 

 from examples procured by the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower on the Mulgrave River. 

 Specimens were also obtained by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robert Grant who were collecting in 

 the same locality on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum. Mr. Grant informed me 

 that he usually met with this species on low lying lands, searching for insects among the fallen 

 leaves in open parts of the scrub. During a period of eleven months collecting in that part of 

 Queensland in 1888-9, he never saw two Rufous Crow-Shrikes in company, it was generally 

 one rufous and one black bird, and there are two of these birds in the Australian Museum 

 collection shot while feeding together in the scrub opposite Double Island. 



It is somewhat remarkable that attempts were made to refute this statement, by quoting 

 the e.xperiences of other collectors in the same districts, who, it was stated, had never seen 

 a rufous and black bird together, but always two rufous, or two black ones. Time, however, 

 has proved that not only have they been seen in company, but young rufous and black birds 

 have been found together in the same nest, while in other nests the young were all brown 

 although the parents were black. 



This difference in colour I drew attention to in 1897, when describing the eggs and fledgeling 

 of Cradicus vufescens, in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. + They 

 were received from Mr. J. A. Boyd while resident on the Herbert River, Queensland, who sent 

 me the following note: — "On the 26th October, i8g6 a black gin brought me a pair of most 

 peculiar eggs belonging to a species of Cracticiis, which the natives call ' Kulgo ' from its note. 

 The male is a very noisy black bird, about the size of Eudynamis, the female brown. There is a 

 great difference between the eggs, although in both the ground colour is very pale green. One 

 is pyriform, with a lot of dark chocolate blotches on the larger end, and a band of green around 

 the middle; the other is oval in form, a few ink-like markings taking the place of the blotches 

 on the larger end, and the band around the middle is absent. Both eggs are heavily incubated, 

 and one is broken in two places by the gin's teeth as she brought them down in her mouth. The 

 nest, built between the trunk and a couple of branches of a small tree overhanging Ripple Creek, 

 was a simple construction of twigs without lining, and showing daylight all through." 



The eggs forwarded by Mr. Boyd are as described above. The narrow green band around 

 the centre of one egg is purely an accidental marking, for similar bands sometimes occur in the 

 eggs of other species. Length (A) 1-45 x 1-05 inches; (B) 1-43 x 1-03 inches. In a subsequent 

 letter, Mr. Boyd wrote: — "Why this Cractictis is caWed rufescens I do not know, certainly the 

 female is reddish-brown but the male is jet black," and again, under 12th May, 1898, " I have 

 lost my pair of Cracticus, I saw both the black and the brown bird several times after my return 

 home. They may have gone away to avoid the severe winter, but I do not remember them 

 migrating before." The late Mr. W. S. Day, who resided for many years at Kuranda, near 

 Cairns, also wrote me as follows : — Cnuiicns rnfcsccus is fairly common at Riverstone, sixteen 

 miles from Cairns, I have shot a lot of them, but got very few on the top of the range. The 

 female is always brown, so is the young male, but the old male is black." Upon the authority 

 of Mr. K. Broadbent, and the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower, Mr. C. W. De Vis and Dr. R. B. 

 Sharpe respectively agree in describing the sexes of C. rufescens, as being nearly alike in colour. 

 Why a Rufous and a Black Crow-Shrike, should always be seen together, if not in sexual 

 distinction of one species, was a mystery to me, and owing to the birds being by no means 

 common on the Herbert River, Mr. Boyd was unable to grant my request for a pair shot at the 

 nest. Of the adult rufous skins in the Australian Museum collection, one is much darker on the 

 upper parts than the other, having the feathers on the crown of the head, nape, hind-neck, and 

 centre of the upper back black with a narrow rufous shaft stripe, widening out on the crown and 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.SW., Vol. VII., p. 562 (1883). 

 t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.H.Wales, 2nd Series, Vol. XXII , p. 56 {1897), 



