204 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



young from the bush, reared and allowed his freedom about 

 the place. When he was about two years old, hen-birds from 

 the bush came and coquetted with " Charlie," as he is called, 

 who appeared to pay little heed to his admirers. At last the 

 seductions of one of the hen-birds proved too great, and the pair 

 commenced to build a nest in the nearest tree, not one hundred 

 yards from the house. Charlie proved an exceedingly devoted 

 husband, feeding his mate upon the nest regularly by conveying 

 food from the kitchen table, the meat block, and in fact from 

 anywhere he could steal it. This recurred for seven seasons, the 

 seventh season's brood, I was a witness to, and saw Charlie procur- 

 ing meat in the kitchen to feed the young. Once Charlie's wing 

 was clipped, when he was forced to climb the tree instead of using 

 flight. On another occasion he unfortunately lost a leg in a trap. 

 It was almost ludicrous to watch how the poor bird used the 

 stump in climbing to assist to feed his oftspring. When a brood 

 (usually four in number) was reared honours seemed to be 

 divided, he brought two about the house, wliile the wild l^ird 

 enticed her pair into the bush. 



Magpies in their natural state mostly procure their food upon 

 the gx'ound, devouring almost anything that creeps or crawls, 

 including lizards and possibly small snakes. Occasionally they 

 eat grain, berries, and other fruit, but those persons who contend 

 that Magpies are granivorous, need only place a bird in a cage, 

 keep it upon grain diet, and note how soon it will die. 



It is well known that Magpies can be taught successfully to 

 imitate the human voice in speech. When they attain this 

 accomplishment they invariably drop their own clear wild notes, 

 giving voice occasionally to a loud half-crowing half-whistle-like 

 sound, which is simply abominable as compared with the 

 delightful ilute-like cadenza one hears the bird pour forth when 

 in native freedom. 



At Warroo, in South Queensland, my venerable friend, Mr. 

 Hermann Lau, once found a Black-backed Magpie's nest 

 containing two eggs of that bird, in addition to a pair of eggs of 

 the Great Cuckoo or Channel-bill (Scythrops). He also noted 

 that on the DarUng Downs the Magpie usually reai-ed two broods 

 a season, one in August, another about October. 



