184 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



these roots that it is constantly seen searching for crabs. Its 

 note is short and monotonous, and very hke the name given 

 to it by the aborigines, Mol-gol-ga, the second syllable being 

 prolonged and forming the highest note ; it also utters other 

 sounds, some of them resembling those of the GymnorMna 

 leuconota ; at other times it frequently emits a note very 

 similar to the cry of young birds for food. 



The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of crabs, 

 and occasionally of coleoptera, neuroptera, and the larvae of 

 insects of various kinds. 



The entire plumage black, each feather of the upper and 

 under surface broadly margined with deep glossy green ; irides 

 dark reddish brown ; bill very light ash-grey, passing into 

 leaden grey at the base, and dark bluish grey on the culmen 

 near the tip ; legs and feet greenish grey. 



The bill appears to vary very much in colour ; being in some 

 instances entirely ash-grey, except at the tip, where it is black; 

 while in others the basal two-thirds is black and the tip grey : 

 whether this difference is occasioned by age or sex has not 

 yet been ascertained. 



Sp. 99. CRACTICUS TORQUATUS. 



Collared Crow-Shrike. 



Lanius torquatus. Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. xviii. 



Vanga destructor, Temm. Man., part i. p. lix. 



Barita destructor, Temm. PI. Col. 273. 



Bulestes torquatus. Cab, Mus. Hein. Theil i. p. 66. 



W ad-do-wad-ong, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Aus- 



traha. 

 Butcher-Bird of the Colonists of Swan River. 



Cracticus destructor, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. pi. 52. 



This bird is a permanent resident in New South Wales and 

 South Australia, where it inhabits the margins of the ,brushy 

 lands near the coast, the sides of hills, and the belts of trees 



