INSESSORES. 173 



Sp. 91. . STREPERA ANAPHONENSIS. 



V 



Grey Crow-Shrike. 



Barita Anaphonensis, Temm. PI. Col. 



Cracticus cuneicaudatus, Vieill. 2" Edit, du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 



torn. V. p. 356. 

 Strepera plumbea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xiv. p. 20. 

 Corvus versicolor, Lath. ? 



Strepera versicolor, Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 302, Strepera, sp. 3. 

 Gymnorhina Anaphonensis, Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 302, Gymno- 



rhina, sp. 3. 

 Dje-laak, Aborigines of Western Australia. 

 Squeaker of the Colonists. 



Strepera Anaphonensis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. 11. 

 pi. 45. 



Having formerly considered the Grey Crow-Shrikes of New 

 South Wales and Western Australia as distinct species, I 

 assigned to the Swan River bird the specific appellation of 

 plumhea ; subsequent research has, however, induced me to 

 believe them identical ; and if this be really the case, no one 

 species of the genus has so wide a range as the present, 

 extending as it does from New South Wales on the east 

 to Swan River on the west coast. It is, however, more 

 local in its habitat than any of them, at least such is the case 

 in New South Wales ; for although it is tolerably abundant 

 at Illawarra, at Camden, and at Bong-bong, it was not seen 

 in any other district that I visited. Gilbert states that in 

 Western Australia he mostly met with it in the thickly wooded 

 forests, singly or in pairs, feeding on the ground with a gait 

 and manners very much resembling the Common Crow. Its 

 flight is easy and long-sustained, and it occasionally mounts 

 to a considerable height in the air. 



The stomach is very muscular, and the food consists of 

 coleoptera and the larvae of insects of various kinds. 



It breeds in the latter part of September and the begmiiing 



