INSESSORES. 181 



and were generally placed on a low horizontal branch among 

 the thick foliage. 



The eggs are dark yellowish brown, spotted and clouded 

 with markings of a darker hue, and in some instances with a 

 few minute spots of black ; their medium length is one inch 

 and three lines by eleven lines in breadth. 



The breeding-season commences in August, and continues 

 during the four following months. 



The sexes are so precisely alike in colouring, that they can 

 only be distinguished with certainty by dissection. 



Head, neck, and chest black; hinder part of the neck, 

 shoulders, centre of the wing, rump, and under surface white ; 

 two middle tail-feathers entirely black, the remainder black 

 largely tipped with white ; bill lead-colour at the base, black 

 at the tip ; legs black ; irides brown. 



The young during the first autumn are very different from 

 the adult, particularly in the colouring of the head and chest, 

 which is light brown instead of black ; the bill, as in most 

 youthful birds, is also very different, the basal portion being 

 dark fleshy brown instead of lead-colour. 



Sp. 96. CRACTICUS PICATUS, Godd. 



Pied Crow-Shrike. 



Cr actions picatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. See, 1848, p. 40. 

 Ka-ra-a-ra, Aborigines of Port Essington. 

 Magpie of the Colonists. 



Cracticus picatus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. 11. pi. 50. 



This is in every respect a miniature representative of the 

 Cracticus nigrorjularis of New South Wales ; it must, how- 

 ever, be regarded as a distinct species ; for its much more 

 diminutive size will warrant such a conclusion by every orni- 

 thologist who compares them. 



Gilbert, who found it at Port Essington in considerable 

 abundance, states that it is an extremely shy and wary bird. 



