GREY SHRIKE-THRUSH. 
and insects of various kinds, especially those to be found under the 
barks of trees, constitute the principal food. On account of its powerful 
bill it is enabled, with ease, to strip the loose bark from the limbs and 
search out its prey. It has come to bush homesteads and hunted insects 
and picked up crumbs and would sit on the fence and pour forth its 
melodious notes.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby writes : “I have seen this bird in Tasmania 
wherever I have been, and it has several notes quite distinct from those 
of the mainland, otherwise there appears to be little difference in 
habits, etc.” 
Although figured and described in 1790 in White’s Journal, as above 
related, this species was not scientifically named until Latham published his 
Supplement to his Index Ornith. in 1801, when he gave the name of T urdus 
badius to it. Higher on the same page he had described Turdus harmonious 
which he thought might be a different species, and that name has been used for 
the last eighty years. Before it was recognised Vigors and Horsfield had 
received a specimen and, recognising its peculiar features, made a new genus 
for it which is the one we now use. 
When the Tasmanian form was received in England it was at once 
described as a new species by two different workers and the earliest name, 
though accompanied by a good description, was ignored until I revived it. 
It is noteworthy that Gould used a name for the form as one given by 
Jardine. Sharpe in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum rejected 
Gould’s name in favour of Jardine and Selby’s, though of course Swainson’s 
should have been preferred, and Sharpe’s usage, being in an authoritative 
work, was followed by most workers. The Tasmanian form is superficially 
a very distinct form, the streaking of the breast (whence the name strigata ) 
and the long straight bill (whence the name rectirostris) being very 
characteristic. However, intermediate forms like to the mainland occur 
so that I now regard it as subspecific only, but it is on the border fine between 
a species and subspecies, and is an excellent instance of the development 
of the Tasmanian species. 
No other forms were recognised or named until Masters described from 
Cape Grenville, North Queensland, a new species under the name Colluri- 
cincla superoiliosa. Of this Macgillivray has recently written : “ The 
White-browed Shrike-Thrush was fairly common in the open forest. The 
type of C. superoiliosa was obtained at Cape Grenville, half-way between 
Cape York and the Claudie River, and is so far the only specimen obtained 
that has a broad white eyebrow. All specimens, however, obtained from 
different parts of the Cape York Peninsula are alike, and Mr. Mathews 
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