70



On the Tasmanian Magpie.



white, except just at the base ; the next are black, except on the

outer edge and tip, centre of the tail black.


The hen is rather smaller than the cock. She has only

one white patch, and is reddish on the sides and under the

wings.


My birds were wonderfully tame, and seemed to have no

fear of man at all. Of course, being Shrikes, they require a

large amount of animal food. Give them a small mouse, and

they will kill and eat it with as little compunction as an English

sportsman would kill a rabbit.


The Pied Shrike is one of the most beautiful and dapper

birds I have ever kept; always spotlessly clean, and, in his

beautiful white waistcoat and glossy black coat,- reminds me of

the late Mr. Panmure Gordon, of Stock Exchange renown.


My Pied friends are very easy to feed. I give them any

soft food with a plentiful supply of mealworms, blackclocks, and

small baby mice, and they always look fat and well - liking.

Needless to remark, they are not birds that you would turn into

an aviary where there was aught that you valued.


I should not call the Pied Shrike a grateful bird, for after

I have fed him to the full with luscious mealworms, I have seen

him repeatedly hop away contemptuously ; saying as plainly as a

newsboy in Boar Pane would say it, “ Oh, now you can go and

shoot yourself! ”



THE TASMANIAN MAGPIE.


The Piping Crows ( Gymnorhina) of Australasia, known to

the Colonists as “ Magpies,” are an interesting and entertaining

genus, combining the intelligent mischievousness of the Corvidce

with an exceptionally musical voice. The Eesser White-backed

species of Tasmania ( G. hyperleztca), is the subject of an interest¬

ing article by Mr. Frank Eittler in the current number of the

Zoologist. The species is entirely confined to Tasmania, not even

being found on any of the islands of Bass Strait. The same

tree, we are told, is resorted to year after 3'ear, for the nest,

although the same nest is not occupied during successive



