150 
AN AITSTRALTAN BIRD BOOK. 
3 320* Yellow-breasted Shrike-Tit (Yellow-bellied. Frontal, 
3 Crested), Falcon-Shrike, Falcunculus frontatus, E.A., 
S.A. Stat. r. timl)er 7.5 
Upper green; crest, throat, line through eye black; patch 
above eye, patch below eye white; under bright-yellow; 
strong hooked bill; f., throat green. Insects. Musical 
notes. 
do not hold their prey in their feet, so they fasten it in the fork 
of a tree, or on a thorn. Then they proceed to eat it, or leave it 
until they are hungry. Our Shrike or Butcher-Bird has the same 
habit. 
The Australian Butcher-Bird has a rich, mellow, flute-like note, 
which is more frequently heard in autumn. Some consider his 
one of the best of bird-notes. His strongly-hooked bill renders 
him a terror to small birds, including caged Canaries. 
That glorious songster, the Australian Magpie, is placed in this 
family. These Australian songsters are now divided into five 
closely-similar species, all possessing the same rich carol. The 
Tasmanian bird was formerly called the "Organ-Bird." This Aus- 
tralian musician is responsible for the European epigram of 
"white Crows that sing." These birds are not Crows, nor are 
they white, but they sing, so that Alfred Russel Wallace has de- 
clared that no European songbird can equal them. Gould 
found it impossible to describe their "carol," and regretted that 
**his readers could not," as he had done, "listen to the birds in their 
