26 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



band of purple, red, and pink of various shades around the upper half. 

 According to Campbell, the Pallid Cuckoo sometimes adopts the Magpie-lark 

 as a mother for her baby and places her egg in the nest. When hawks and 

 Butcher-birds were plentiful in the Murray swamps of norch-western Victoria,, 

 a Aery large percentage of the young nestlings of the Magpie-larks were 

 destroyed by these carniverous birds; while the big lizards (" gohannas "^ 

 accounted for many more. With the passing of these enemies, and with the 

 adaptation of these birds to their surroundings, their numbers are increasing 

 in all suitable localities. When the great wheat stacks were built at White 

 Bay and Enfield, it was remarkable how many Magpie-larks were attracted 

 to these localities, the swarms of insects breeding from the wheat being the 

 attraction. The deserted nests of these birds are often occupied later in the 

 season, and after they have reared their broods, by the wood-swallows,. 

 Graucalus, and other birds. 



The Magpie-lark, though it will sometimes pick up bits of maize and grain 

 in the chicken yard, is almost entirely insectivorous in its food. Under 

 normal conditions, ants, small ground beetles, and moth larvae form a con- 

 siderable portion of its diet. When the locust plagues appear, and the young^ 

 are in the nest, the birds have a busy time. I once watched a pair of 

 Magpie-larks bring forty well-grown grasshoppers to their lusty babies in 

 half an hour. This bird is also recorded to be a formidable enemy of the 

 fresh-water snail that is the intermediate host of the liver fluke of sheep, and 

 for this work alone it should have the protection of all stockowners. The 

 males and females can be easily distinguished from each other by the white 

 face of the female and the black face of her mate. 



The Magpie {GymnorJnna tibicin, Latham). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 175, No. 92 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 149, No. 316. 



According to ornithologists there are four distinct species of magpies ; 

 according to the bouk they are " Piping Crow-shrikes," yet the man in 

 the bush knows them all as magf)ies. There is one species restricted to 

 Tasmania, another to south-western Australia, and two are found in the 

 eastern States. Campbell considers that the White-backed Magpie 

 (Gymnorhina leuconata Grey) is more a coastal bird in South Australia and 

 Victoria, and that it "tapers out" in the inland districts, where the Black- 

 backed Magpie is the most common. Our common species under review 

 ranges over Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland,, 

 while the white-backed species does not extend into Queenftland. 



The magpies increase in number in areas where there are cultivation pad- 

 docks and the land is tilled. Inland, they are scantily scattered over the 

 land in pairs or small families along the rivers and about the homesteads. 

 In spite of the statement that rabbit-poisoning has killed out cur mag- 

 pies, let one go through the New England country when the ploughmen are 

 at work and he will see dozens of them hunting over the freshly turned soil } 



