THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
are better known as the Watling paintings, and when a set came into the 
possession of the British Museum (Natural History) a report was drawn up 
by Sharpe, and published in the History of the Collections. Therein he 
determined the painting No. 28 as applicable to the bird known at that time 
as Graucalus melanops, and as the name founded on painting No. 28, Lanius 
robustus, was six pages earlier than Corvus melanops, also founded on another 
Watling drawing, and which was undeniably referable to the Small-billed 
Cockoo -Shrike, it should supersede the better known name. Fortunately, an 
error had been made and I recognised that Latham’s L. robustus belonged 
to the species now under review, and I made the necessary correction. I have 
said “fortunately” as the former was the commoner bird and the name melanops 
was well established; but, as I have just shown, this proved of no avail, as 
there was an even earlier valid name for the species melanops. 
The alteration to robustus for the present species and the rejection of 
the well-known mentalis given by Vigors and Horsfield cannot be gainsaid, 
as Latham’s Corvus melanog aster is also applicable and also earlier than 
mentalis. When Vigors and Horsfield proposed the latter name in their Essay 
on the Australian Birds in the Linnean Society’s Collection they were a little 
puzzled, as their note states : “ The bird described above exhibits so many 
points of distinction from the preceding species that we have ranked it as 
separate. Its locality also, which is different from that of the other species, 
serves to strengthen us in this opinion. The chief difference consists in the 
inferior size of our bird, all the specimens we have seen of the former species 
being about thirteen inches in length ; in the darkness of the ash colour on 
the back ; in the narrowness of the frontal band, and particularly in the 
white colour of the mentum. There is, however, much variation, as is alleged, 
in the Grauc. melanops and Papuensis ; and it may happen that our bird 
is but the young of one of those species. Our specimen was found on the 
South Coast by Mr. Brown in 1803.” 
When Gould dealt with this species he queried that it might be Lanius 
robustus of Latham, though writing about it under the heading Graucalus- 
mentalis Vigors and Horsfield, thus : “ 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, therefore, desiderata with 
me. There is no one member of the family to which it belongs which undergoes 
so many changes of plumage as the present species, and is consequently very 
puzzling to the ornithologist. In extreme youth, or during the first few 
months after it has left the nest, the throat, chest, and back of the neck are 
jet-black, while the breast and abdomen are rayed with obscure arrow-shaped 
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