OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 



maiden females, have their night quarters in a row of dense 

 pines surrounding this house. From thence they work the 

 paddocks around not in possession of other Magpies, and the 

 execution they wreak upon the grubs in the grub-infested 

 places is wonderful. Judging from the way they have kept 

 the surrounding paddocks free of grubs, the planting of those 

 pines was the best-invested money on the property. I have 

 come to regard them as a standing army of scavengers, ready 

 to go forth to check an invasion of either crickets, grass- 

 hoppers, caterpillars, or any such undesirable visitors. Often 

 during summer and early autumn I have known them go two 

 miles from their camp to distant paddocks where some pest 

 was in force, hunt there all day, and return to their camp late 

 in the evening. Often they are joined on the field of opera- 

 tions by more colonies of Crow-Shrikes from other directions. 

 Then the muster is formidable — three hundred, perhaps more, 

 all working together till the pest gets scarce, then back to 

 their old quarters. During late years their chief occupation 

 through early spring and summer is the destruction of 

 myriads of grub-producing beetles, whose larvae are such a 

 scourge to graziers and dairymen. The beetles are taken on 

 the wing, and as they fly in greatest numbers just before and 

 after dark, it is usual to find our Magpies hard at work long 

 after twiUght. It is somewhat appaUing to think of the state 

 of the land if they failed us. I have a short note, made last 

 month (July), as follows : — ' Watched White-backed Magpie 

 digging out grubs in fowl-yard ; dug out and ate 30 grubs in 

 ten minutes, this one having struck a rich patch that had not 

 been previously worked by others of its kind. The fowls did 

 not know the succulent grubs were there, just beneath the 

 surface, but the Magpie, having the better training, it would 

 watch and listen intently for a few seconds, then, guided by 

 eye or ear, it would run from place to place, and each time, 

 with unerring certainty, dislodge a grub. No doubt the less 



