INSESSORES. 169 



New South Wales, inhabiting ahke the brushes near the 

 coast, those of the mountain ranges, and also the forests of 

 Eucalypti which clothe the plains and more open country. 

 As a great part of its food consists of seeds, berries, and 

 fruits, it is more arboreal in its habits than some of the other 

 species of its group, whose structure better adapts them for 

 progression on the ground, and whose food principally con- 

 sists of insects and their larvae. Like the other members of 

 the genus, it is mostly seen in small companies, varying from 

 four to six in num.ber, seldom either singly or in pairs : I am 

 not, however, inclined to consider them as gregarious birds 

 in the strict sense of the word, believing as I do that each of 

 these small companies is composed of a pair and their progeny, 

 which appear to keep together from the birth of the latter until 

 the natural impulse for pairing prompts them to separate. 



It is during flight that the markings of this bird are dis- 

 played to the greatest advantage, and render it a conspicuous 

 object in the bush : while on the wing it utters a peculiar 

 noisy cry, by which its presence is often indicated. 



The nest, which is usually constructed on the branches of 

 low trees, sometimes even on those of the Casuarina, is of a 

 large size, round, open, and cup-shaped, built of sticks and 

 lined with moss and grasses ; the eggs, which I was not so 

 fortunate as to procure, are said to be three or four in number. 



The plumage of both sexes at all ages is so precisely similar, 

 that by dissection alone can we distinguish the male from his 

 mate, or the young from the adult ; the female is, however, 

 always a trifle less in all her admeasurements, and the young 

 birds have the corners of the mouth more fleshy and of a 

 brighter yellow than the adults. 



Their general colour is fine bluish black ; the basal half of 

 the primaries, the basal half and the tips of the tail-feathers, 

 including those portions of their shaft's and the under tail- 

 coverts, snow-white ; irides beautiful yellow ; bill and feet 

 black. 



