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attracted to five Magpie skins which had been obtained by the 
Museum Collector, Mr. J. T. Tunney, on the Cane and Ashburton 
Rivers, North-Western Australia, and which bore at firs sight, a 
striking resemblance to Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham) of Eastern Aus- 
tralia, except for their conspicuously long and narrow bills, 
A closer examination and comparisons with a pair of mounted 
specimens of G. tibicen in the Museum, and with recorded scientific 
descriptions of that species disclosed so many points of difference as 
to warrant the separation of the Western form, and therefore Mr. 
Milligan declared it a new species His grounds for separation were 
briefly as follows: — (a) The Western bird is longer; (b) its bill is 
longer; (c) its tail is shorter; ( d ) its tarsi are shorter ; and (e) the thigh 
feathers are not black, but wholly white for the upper portion, and 
noticeably so for the lower. In addition, the plumage generally does 
not present the striking and decided contrasts of glossy bluish-black 
and snowy white that mark the Eastern forms. Mr. Milligan assigned 
to the new species the scientific name of Gymnorhina longiroslris , and 
the vernacular one of the Long-billed Magpie, bu the was aware that in 
the latter respect he was appropriating the vernacular name given by 
Mr. A. J. Campbell to his G. dorsalis. However, as such a vernacular 
name is not the translated equivalent of his specific name ( dorsalis ), and 
as the vernacular “ long-billed ” is the leading characteristic of the new 
species, he asked Mr. Campbell to waive his prior right, and suggested 
substituting the vernacular name of the “Varied-back Magpie,” which 
Mr. Milligan thought would better indicate one of the chief char- 
acteristics of the adult female and the young of both sexes of G. 
dorsalis. 
