THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
danger, and fly about a couple of hundred yards away, when the notes of 
both birds will then be heard. They are usually met with near the ground, 
always watching for some insect or other food. Pairs often take up their 
quarters near station homesteads, where they become very tame, gathering 
most of then* food in the garden or at the slaughtering house, picking particles 
of meat and fat off sheep skins, etc. For nesting purposes they invariably 
choose a rather small tree, or a low hanging branch of a large tree. The 
nest is an open bowl-shaped structure, irregularly formed of twigs, the inside 
being neat but rather shallow, lined with roots and dry grass stems, some- 
times the long thin wire-like leaves of various species of native oak trees. 
The clutch is usually four, and all the nests I have examined containing eggs, 
have been during September and October. Although I have never actually 
seen this species attack other birds I have frequently been told of them killing 
caged Canaries. One pair has taken up its abode about my house, and many 
small birds appear to be in great dread of them, while about my garden 
I frequently hear the danger warning notes of some small bird, and upon 
looking up, expecting to see a Goshawk or a Falcon, I usually see a Butcher- 
Bird on the wing.” 
Campbell and Barnard record : “ This common Butcher-Bird was found 
breeding on the tableland (at Cardwell, Queensland). Broadbent appears 
to have missed it, while Ramsay stated it was the same as the New South 
Wales species. The song of this Butcher-Bird is five or six flute-like notes 
in distinct polka time.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby writes : “ Cr adieus ( destructor ) torquatus. While this 
bird is a very rare visitant to Blackwood in South Australia, it is a very common 
bird in every part of that state outside the higher ranges of the Adelaide hills 
(not lofty ranges). The fact of its absence from the wet range country in 
South Australia and its occurance in such numbers in the wet Gippsland country 
in Victoria seems quite inexplicable. In the Mallee country of South Australia 
it is a very common bird and is very useful in destroying mice. 
“ The song of this bird, altho’ not equal to C. nigrogularis, is probably 
unsurpassed by any other bird ; it consists of a series of clear flute-like notes 
a little higher in tone than the piping of members of the genus Gymnorhina, 
but consists of a greater range of notes. The notes are uttered with a sufficient 
volume of sound to make them easily heard a quarter of a mile away and 
probably considerably further. The Lyre Bird ( Menura victorias) reproduces 
the rippling notes of this bird to perfection and in my experience more often 
than the song of any other denizen of the Gippsland forest. 
“ Subsp. C. cinereus. The Tasmanian Butcher-Bird usually known in 
that island as the Whistling Jackass. In Tasmania the charming notes of 
390 
