CRACTICUS. 21 



never saw two together. On the 3rd January, 1905, I was on one of the North Barnard Islands 

 and found a nest containing three young ones, two black and one brown. The black birds were 

 extremely numerous, their musical notes being heard in all directions, but I never saw a fully 

 adult rufous one. During my search through the scrub on two of the largest islands, I must 

 have seen quite fifty of them. They were eating the eggs of Myristicivora spilorrhoa, the broken 

 shells of emptied Pigeons' eggs being visible almost everywhere." 



Writing from Kuranda, near Cairns on the 21st February, 1905, Mr. H. Elgner sends me 

 the following note: — "I took a nest of Craiiiciis ntfcsccns this season, containing three brown 

 ones; both parent birds were black. Another nest I found at Honey Creek, also contained 

 three brown young ones, and in this instance also the parent birds were black." From these 

 facts it is evident that the young may be either black or brown. 



The eggs vary from oval to pyriform in shape, the sliell being close-grained, smooth, and 

 lustrous. In addition to the eggs previously described by Mr. Boyd, the ground colour varies 

 from very pale olive-green to dull olive-grey, which is distinctly spotted and blotched with 

 various shades of umber and blackish-brown, intermingled with a few ink-like spots and under- 

 lying spots of inky-grey, the markings as a rule being confined to the larger end of the shell. 

 A set of two taken on the Mulgrave River, measure: — Length (A) 1-35 x 1-02 inches; (B) 

 1-35 X i*i inches. 



A rufous fledgeling received from Mr. Boyd, captured by a kanaka girl on Ripple Creek 

 Plantation, on the 26th November, 1895, ^s almost similar in the character of its markings 

 to the adult, but the rufous centres to the feathers on the upper parts are broader and darker, 

 the quills and tail are dark brown, and all the under surface fawn colour, the feathers on the 

 lower neck being narrowly margined with rufous-brown. Wing 4'5 inches. 



Gould was correct in stating that the northern coast is the only portion of Australia in 

 which Cradkus quoyi has been observed. I have examined the type of Crndicus spaldingi. Masters* 

 obtained near Port Darwin, and it is almost precisely similar to C. qiioyi from the Laloki River, 

 New Guinea. The bill of the former is longer and shallower, and the wing-measurement about 

 half an inch longer. If not identical, C. spaldingi is very closely allied to C. quoyi. From the 

 Alligator River a not far distant locality from where the type of C. spaldingi was procured, Dr. 

 E. Hartert has subspecifically distinguished a Black Butcher-bird under the name of Cradicus 

 quoyi tunneyiA Judging from the description and the locality in which it was obtained, it appears 

 to be the same as C. spaldingi, Masters, but to which Dr. Hartert makes no reference in 

 enumerating the various forms of Cradicus quoyi. 



In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"' Dr. H. Gadow places C. spaldingi, 

 Masters, as a synonym of C. mentalis of New Guinea, and the latter name actually appears in 

 a List of Australian Birds, purported by its compilers to be an authoritative one on 

 the Australian avifauna. After Dr. Gadow states in his description of C. mentalis, that it is 

 " somewhat like C. argcntcus," one would think even a tyro would hesitate to accept the name 

 of C. spaldingi, (a bird having the head and upper parts dull black, and with dull rusty brown 

 wings, tail, and under surface) as a synonym of that species. The two birds belong to entirely 

 different sections of the genus. C. argenteus is a partially pied form with a silvery-grey back 

 intermediate between C. nigrigularis and C. destrudor, whereas C. spaldingi is not only a much 

 larger species, but as stated by Mr. Masters in his original description " at first sight might 

 be taken for Crndicus quoyi. Lesson." 



• Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W , Vol. II., p. 271 {1877). 

 t Nov. Zool. Vol. XII., p. 228 (1905). 

 J Cat. Bds. Bri Mus , Vol. VII , p. 102 (1SS3). 

 II Austr Assoc. Adv. Sci., Vol VII., p. 136 (1898 ) 



