BLACK CROW -SHRIKE. 
fond of fruit, and often work great havoc in the orchards. Not content with 
a plain diet, they have a liking for chickens or young ducks.” 
Later, Miss Fletcher wrote : “I spent a week with friends at The Steppes. 
I was much interested in the Black Magpies, which were regular visitants to 
the homestead. The original pair came about ten or twelve years ago, and 
many of their progeny are now about, and are particularly tame in winter, 
when snow is on the ground, and, food therefore scarce. A pair of the old 
birds frequently brought their two young ones to the house during my visit. 
The latter were nearly as big as their parents, but whenever the camera was 
in evidence they kept under the shadow of a large willow tree overhanging 
the roof. Sometimes their rather petulant cries would be heard as early as 
4 a.m. as they walked about the roof evidently wondering why their tit-bits 
had not been placed out for them. There were several nests in the gum-trees 
near the house, where the birds build regularly. My friend stated : 4 The tame 
birds prefer sweet food, such as cake, but when the ground is frozen hard 
they will eat anything. Sometimes they go into the stable loft and catch 
mice in the hay. They are very fond of chickens while they are small, and 
these have to be kept shut up till they are feathered, after which the Magpies 
will not touch them. They prefer young ducklings to anything, and it is 
almost impossible to keep them.’ As the wild ducks breed in this locality 
I expect many of the duc klin gs furnish a meal. Young turkeys are also 
favourites. In their wild state these Magpies eat a great many common 
red berries which grow amongst the rocks. . . They do a lot of good killing 
the grass grubs. On the marshes some miles back, flocks of these Magpies 
gather, all hunting grubs.” 
A. G. Campbell wrote of the King Island form : “ Most plentiful. 
Assembles in rowdy mobs along the beach to search among the kelp for sand- 
hoppers and other dainty morsels. Nesting usually commences about the 
second week in November, the birds building their conspicuous nests in any 
convenient scrub. Birds in immature plumage are common, it being probably 
three years before the rusty brown edgings to the feathers of the back, wings, 
and particularly the under-surface, give place to the stainless black and deep 
grey of maturity.” 
The later recorded measurements thus : 
Total length. Culmen. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 
Strep era graculina 
Vic. 
18-75 
2-25 
10-9 
8-3 
2-15 
cuneicaudata 
Vic. 
21-5 
2-65 
10-75 
8-75 
2*55 
fuliginosa 
Tas. 
19-0 
2-75 
11-4 
8-5 
2-5 
99 
King I. 
18-0 
2-75 
10-2 
7-0 
2-4 
arguta 
Tas. 
21-0 
2-75 
11-9 
9-8 
2-8 
421 
