150 



AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD ROOK. 



3 320* Yellow-breasted Shrike-Tit (Yellow-bellied, Frontal, 

 3 Crested), Falcon-Shrike, Fulcunculus frontatus, E.A., 



S.A. Stat. r. timber 7.5 



Upper green; crest, throat, line through eye black; patch 

 above eye, patch below eye white; under bright-yellow; 

 strong hooked bill; f., throat green. Insects. Musical 

 notes. 



do not hold their prey in their feet, so they fasten it in the fork 

 of a tree, or on a thorn. Then they proceed to eat it, or leave it 

 until they are hungry. Our Shrike or Butcher-Bird has the same 

 habit. 



The Australian Butcher-Bird has a rich, mellow, flute-like note, 

 which is more frequently heard in autumn. Some consider his 

 one of the best of bird-notes. His strongly-hooked bill renders 

 him a terror to small birds, including caged Canaries. 



That glorious songster, the Australian Magpie, is placed in this 

 family. These Australian songsters are now divided into five 

 closely-similar species, all possessing the same rich carol. The 

 Tasmanian bird was formerly called the "Organ-Bird." This Aus- 

 tralian musician is responsible for the European epigram of 

 "white Crows that sing." These birds are not Crows, nor are 

 they white, but they sing, so that Alfred Russel Wallace has de- 

 clared that no European songbird can equal them. Gould 

 found it impossible to describe their "carol," and regretted that 

 "his readers could not," as he had done, "listen to the birds in their 



