INSESSORES. 195 



are each inhabited by Graucali so nearly allied to each other 

 that it was questionable whether they were not one and the 

 same species, and that the slight difterenccs they present were 

 attributable to some peculiarity in the districts they inhabit ; 

 after much attention to the subject, I have been induced to 

 regard the Tasmanian bird as distinct, and I have therefore 

 assigned it a name, parvirostris. 



Forehead, sides of the face, and the throat jet-black ; crown 

 of the head, all the upper surface and centre of the wings 

 delicate grey ; primaries and the inner webs of the secondaries 

 deep brownish black, the former narrowly and the latter 

 broadly margined with greyish white ; tail grey at the base, 

 passing into deep brownivsh black, and largely tipped with 

 white, the grey colouring predominating on the two centre 

 feathers, which are destitute of the white tips ; chest grey, 

 into which the black of the throat gradually passes ; lower 

 part of the abdomen, under surface of the wing and under 

 tail-coverts white ; flanks and thighs grey ; bill and feet 

 brownish black. 



Total length 12 inches ; bill \\ ; wing 7 J ; tail 6 ; tarsi 1. 



Sp. 105. GRAUCALUS MENTALIS, Vi^. and Horsf. 



Varied Graucalus. 



Graucalus mentalis, Vig. & Horsf. iu Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 217. 

 Lanius robustus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p, xviii ? 

 Robust Shrike, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 74? 



Graucalus mentalis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. pi. 56. 



New South Wales, or the south-eastern division of Australia, 

 is the native habitat of the present species ; it is by no means 

 a rare bird in the Upper Hunter and all similar districts, yet 

 I did not succeed in finding its nest and eggs ; they are there- 

 fore desiderata with me. 



There is no one member of the family to which it belongs 

 which underi);oes so many changes of plumage as the present 



o 2 



