THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 41 



During this season I was so surprised at the habits of these 

 birds under domestication that I decided to make an attempt 

 to record some of their habits and to supplement it with field 

 notes, without reference to previous literature bearing upon the 

 subject, which is somewhat lengthy. 



White-backed Magpie, Gymnorhina leuconota, Gould. 



The pugnacity of the White-backed Magpie is not confined to 

 the rear part of the house, as, for example, in a note I made of 

 four pursuing a hawk in spring time. The hawk took refuge 

 from its pursuers in a clump of ti-iree and remained there for 

 some twenty-five minutes, until the patience of one magpie gave 

 out. Each of the three was posted in a conspicuous spot, and 

 very soon after the first one a second bird thought it had other 

 duties and flew away. The last two still kept their posts until the 

 hawk sallied forth, only to be driven back again. The hawk 

 could face one " pie " but not two. I left them at this stage, so 

 cannot say how the affair terminated. Magpies are not always 

 gregarious. They mate for life, and families of two to five are 

 generally to be seen as if governing each a small area. Some- 

 times a pair, or the occupiers of a block, will not breed for a year, 

 but they join the multitude in the following summer. Though 

 magpies are fond of wheat they are trebly drawn to the luscious 

 grasshopper, a horde of which they will attack in a most 

 beneficial way for the agriculturist. The season 1897-98 was 

 so poor in insect life that young magpies died in their nests 

 in different parts of the Wiramera. Just as spring seems to 

 come first to the plants near sea levels and later to the alpine 

 forms, so does this species build a nest earlier in the valleys 

 than on the hills. This seems to me to be true as regards the 

 small difference of, say, 300 feet. In my notes on magpies I 

 find the young birds have as much wish to stay with the parents 

 throughout the spring as young albatrosses have, but it is not 

 allowable in the former case. The keen observations of Mr. 

 Geo. Graham, in his letters to me of August last, state clearly 

 (with small additions from the writer) the case of forced individual 

 migration : — " Three out of seven families that occupy my 

 paddocks have with them each a bird of last season's breeding, 

 and to all appearance it intends to stay with them throughout 

 the summer. When the next brood is incubated the family will 

 increase from three to five (two always being the number of the 

 brood here), and, providing there are no accidents, it remains 

 until about next May, when one disappears, and shortly after 

 another goes. At this time there is a deal of chasing among the 

 magpies, and I have concluded that it is the young male that is 

 being driven away. (The young male becomes blacker, and 

 sooner than the female, as well as I can judge.) I think the 

 parent male would not permit the opposite-sexed young to remain 



