WHITE-BACKED MAGPIE. 
always in sight. They were also noted at Kellerberin, but were never seen 
within a radius of about six miles round the town of Albany, but they occurred 
sparingly on the King River, about seven miles distant from that town. When 
driving north of Albany towards the Stirling Ranges in 1910 the first Magpies 
were seen at a farm on the eastern end of the Porongorup Ranges, about 35 miles 
from Albany. There was always a party of about eleven birds about my home- 
stead near Broome Hill, except in the breeding months, when the old birds 
were busy at their nests ; then the party w r as reduced to four or five birds of 
the previous year, still in the broivn phase of plumage, which had become frayed 
and ragged. Thus in my diary : * Sept. 5, 1908 : Five birds at house in brown 
plumage of last year, apparently moulting, tail-less and ragged. Oct. 5, 1909. 
Last year’s birds at house, very ragged and losing their tail and wing-feathers 
(apparently Magpies do not breed until two years old). August 26, 1910 : 
Only four last year’s birds left at house, still in brown plumage. The adults 
aw'ay nesting. The male birds occasionally come to the house for food for 
sitting female (?) and themselves.’ Ear]y in May the adult males usually 
begin to sing their beautiful evening carol from the summit of a lofty tree. 
It is also sung in the early morning, but not for so long, as the birds interrupt 
it by feeding intervals. In May the birds, not already paired, have desperate 
fights for their future partners. Black-backed birds (the females ?) often 
joined in a lusty chorus of singing, when on the ground, with a party of adult 
males and immature birds, and the latter also join in the frequent chorus of 
song, when the birds all run together, heads inwards, and turning their beaks 
upwards, they seem to ‘ chortle ’ and sing one against the other. Nest building 
usually commences in earnest in July, and many eggs are laid by the end of that 
month, but August is the chief laying month, the clutch usually three, sometimes 
four. Many eggs are still in the nests in September, and one clutch of three 
fresh eggs was found as late as Oct. 28th, 1906, perhaps a second brood. The 
nests are sometimes bulky, occasionally quite small, built of sticks and twigs, 
and lined with grass, roots, and long straws. The nests are usually at a con- 
siderable height above the ground, from 30 to 60 feet, rarely less than 20 feet. 
The female appears to perform at least the bulk of the incubation, as at that 
time the handsome white-backed adult males are only in evidence feeding about 
the land. When the young birds leave the nest, the parents feed them in the 
open country for several weeks, probably because at that time of year, the 
grass is still fairly green, and food abundant. The young birds of the year 
were usually introduced by the parents to feed on scraps around the homestead, 
sometime in December. They are fed by the parents for a long time after they 
leave the nest, and they follow' the old birds about with open beak, uttering a 
whining note to induce them to feed them, often until March of the following 
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