BIRDS. 51 
While few, if any, other of the many Australian bird pets kept by the writer 
rivalled the Podargi in the interest evoked by their Protean aspects and engaging 
habits, certain of them exhibited, under domesticated influences, traits and peculiarities 
that invite attention. Among the more conspicuous of these, an example of the 
Queensland Shrike or Butcher-bird, Cracticus torquatus, lays claim to brief notice, 
with reference, more ‘especially to the pathetic circumstances that attended its decease. 
Various species of this Shrike genus inhabit all of the Australian Colonies, but 
are chiefly confined to their southern, temperate, limits. The loud garrulous song 
of certain of these species—which consists of a rapid alternately descending and 
ascending scale on a gamut of a few notes only, with harmonious intervals—has won 
for them in those colonies, such as Tasmania, to which Dacelo gigas is not indigenous, 
the local appellation of the “Laughing Jackass.” All of the species are very readily 
tamed, and, being in captivity inveterate mimics, with marked whistling and talking 
tendencies, are in considerable favour as domestic pets. 
A young Queensland Shrike was obtained by the writer at the same time and 
from the same travelling caravan which supplied the Podargi. It early developed its 
special whistling properties, and these were so trained that within a few weeks he 
rehearsed the first stanzas of the Cambrian air “The Rising of the Lark” with a 
vigour and correctness that would have won for him honourable mention, if not a 
prize, at a Welsh Eisteddfod. This became the customary merry reveillé with 
which from his cage in the verandah he was accustomed to rouse the household 
in the early morning. The courage and spirit of these birds is notable; they will 
readily attack and drive away Hawks, Piping Crows, Gymnorhina, and almost any 
larger birds that happen to poach upon their preserves. In captivity they evince 
the strongest likes and dislikes to individual people. In the example under 
notice children became a special subject of hostility, msomuch that it was 
found desirable to confine him to his cage when young people were about, upon 
whom otherwise he was disposed to unpleasantly exercise the aggressive prowess of 
his sharp beak. Allowed to run loose in the garden during the greater portion of 
the day, he developed a marked penchant for English sparrows, which to the 
Australian settler’s sorrow have been introduced and have multiplied to a ruinous 
extent around the greater number of the leading industrial centres. The captured 
sparrows he was accustomed, after the manner of his kind, to store up for a future 
banquet in some conveniently accessible spot, such as the forked branch of an 
adjacent bush, or may be betwixt the bars of his roomy cage. To approach his 
