THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Eggs, A clutch of three eggs is of a pale brownish-buff ground-colour, well spotted and 
blotched with dull purplish-brown, umber, and pale chestnut. They are very long 
ovals in shape. Surface of shell rather smooth and glossy. The clutch measures 
42-48 mm. by 29-30. Collected on the east side of Marble Range, Ej're’s 
Peninsula, South Australia, on the 31st of August, 1911 ( jusca ). 
The nest is made of sticks, neatly lined with dry grass, and placed high up, and often at the 
top of a slender limb in a tall tree. 
Eggs. Clutch three to four eggs, usually three ; and is subject to variation, but not to the 
extent as exhibited in the graculina. A clutch of three of the most usual variety 
found has a ground-colour of pale purplish-buff, well blotched all over, and chiefly at 
the larger end of each egg, with purplish-brown, brownish-umber, and dull reddish- 
brown. Long ovals in shape, and surface of shell smoothly granular and glossy. 
The clutch measures 42-44 mm. by 29-31. Taken at Circular Head, Tasmania, on 
the 20th of October, 1887. Another clutch of three, oval in shape, ground-colour 
of a pale creamy-brown, well spotted with dull markings of purplish-brown, umber, 
and reddish-brown. Surface of shell smooth and slightly glossy. The clutch 
measures 45-47 mm. by 31-32. Taken at Landfall, near Launceston, Tasmania, on 
the 5th of October, 1910 ( arguta ). 
The nest is a large open structure, composed of sticks and dead branchlets, and lined with 
bark, rootlets and grass, and generally placed high up in a large tree. 
The early history of this bird is somewhat like that of some other forms. 
Described by Latham from a “Watling” drawing the name was not recognised, 
and then Temminck and Laugier described and figured it and their name 
was for some time accepted. However Cuvier had mentioned it in the Regne 
Animal, and when Sharpe monographed these as “ Crows ” in the Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus., he accepted Gray’s recognition of Vieillot’s Cracticus cuneicau- 
datus as referable to this bird and on the score of priority displaced Temminck’s 
name then in use. Sharpe rejected Latham’s Corvus versicolor , accepted by 
Strickland from study of the “Lambert” drawings, but thirty years afterwards 
when he examined the “Watling” drawings he unhesitatingly revived Latham’s 
name. I will go into detail in this matter in the technical portion of this 
essay. 
Latham gave no notes, so that probably Gould’s are the earliest as here- 
after reproduced. 
There are two items of interest in the early history ; after Vieillot had 
named a specimen brought back by the early French voyageurs it was described 
by Quoy and Gaimard from a specimen from Port Jackson. They called 
it a Barita, naming it B. griseus, describing it as a grey bird, and at some time 
or other Gould also proposed to call it Strepera cinerea, but the name was 
not used, but only quoted by Strickland when he identified Latham’s Corvus 
versicolor. The variation seen in this species was recognised as of specific 
value by Gould who, working geographically, distinguished two new species, 
Strepera arguta, a larger bird from Tasmania, and Strepera plumbea, a darker 
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