BLACK-THROATED BUTCHER-BIRD. 
greyish-green, spotted and blotched with light to dark olive-brown and dull slate, 
confined chiefly to the larger end of each egg, and scattered here and there are 
also a few black ink-like markings. Surface of shell smoothly granular and glossy. 
They measure 36 mm. by 25. 
Nest. A neat, shallow cup-shaped structure, composed of thin dead twigs and sticks, and 
lined with small roots and grasses ; frequently the lining is a well-matted mass of 
rootlets. Dimensions of nest across over all is from 8 to 11 inches. Egg cavity 
from 4 to nearly 5 inches across by 2 to 2|- inches deep. The nest is usually placed 
in a forest tree from 12 to 40 feet or more from the ground, generally in the upright 
forks; saplings are often used for the purpose. 
j Breeding season. August to December or January. 
Gould recorded his observations thus : “ The Black- throated Crow-Shrike 
finds a natural asylum in New South Wales, the only one of the Australian 
colonies in which it has yet been found, and where it is by no means 
rare, although the situations it affects renders it somewhat local ; it is a 
stationary species, breeding in all parts of the country suitable to its habits 
and mode of life ; districts of rich land known as apple-tree flats, and low 
open undulating hills studded with large trees, are the kinds of districts to 
which it particularly resorts ; hence the cow pastures at Camden, the fine 
park-like estate of Charles Throsby, Esq., at Bong-bong, and the entire district 
of the Upper Hunter are among the localities in which it may always be found. 
It is usually seen in pairs, and, from its active habits and pied plumage, forms 
a conspicuous object among the trees, the lower and out-spreading branches 
of which are much more frequented by it than the higher ones ; from these 
lower branches it often descends to the ground in search of insects and small 
lizards, which, however, form but a portion of its food, for, as its powerful 
and strongly hooked bill would lead us to infer, prey of a more formidable 
kind is often resorted to ; its sanguinary disposition, in fact, leads it to feed 
on young birds, mice, and other small quadrupeds, which it tears piecemeal 
and devours on the spot.” 
Capt. S. A. White has written that he met with this species all along 
the water courses in the interior. 
Macgillivray has recorded : “ Common throughout the Gulf country. 
A fawn' -coloured bird was frequently noted, probably one of the plumage 
changes towards maturity. Stomach contents, beetles and grasshoppers.” 
. . . “ Was fairly plentiful in the forest country bordering the Archer River.” 
This seems the only note of a fawn-coloured form, which appears to be 
equivalent to the well ventilated case of Cr adieus rufescens De Vis, and is 
important from a phylogenetic viewpoint. 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin writes : “At one time there was always a few pairs of 
Cradicus nigrigularis about this district, Cobbora, New South Wales, but I 
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