THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Cole has recorded : “ Upon dissecting a Grey Crow-Shrike shot a few 
weeks ago in this district, the stomach contained scores of the large brown 
bull ant, well known to those who have accidently rested upon one of their 
mounds. This bird had collected them while they were moving up and down 
the trees in quest of food.” 
Maddison has written from the Upper Goulbourn district : “ Flocks of 
Grey Strepera (S. versicolor ) and Pied Strepera (8. graculina) may always be 
found in this district, and their nests are generally placed in the most inacces- 
sible trees, though occasionally one may be found in a lower position. The 
Streperas are ground feeders, their principal food consisting of the large black 
and red bull ants, though in the fruit season they attack orchards, pecking 
plums, pears, apples, etc. When on a raid, a sentinel is placed in a high tree, 
while the others feed below, and at the slightest sign of danger he swoops 
from his perch with a loud call, and the whole flock rises into the air and flies 
away.” 
Ingle wrote from South Gippsland : “ These birds are very plentiful 
at times, but generally all disappear at the approach of the breeding season. 
Only one nest has been seen in this district.” 
As long ago as 1905 a report of the South Australian Ornithological 
Association was published dealing with the Strepera family. “ Birds from 
Yorke’s Peninsula and Eyre’s Peninsula in South Australia were found to 
be darker brown, with a very great amount of white on the wing, and it was 
considered that these birds were not Strepera melanoptera nor yet Strepera 
plumbea, and it was suggested to designate them Strepera fusca, or the Brown 
Crow-Shrike. Specimens from Quorn, Laura and Mt. Remarkable, in the 
north of South Australia, resembled Strepera fusca in general colour, but the 
speculum on the wings was not so defined, and not nearly so white.” 
Five years later Mellor proposed in an orthodox manner Strepera fusca 
as a new species, but the name must date from the first introduction, and it 
is exactly the same bird as Sharpe thirty years before had named S. intermedia 
from the same locality. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written me : “ These birds I first came across at 
Stokes in the Koppis Ranges, on Eyre’s Peninsula, in September and October, 
1899, and I also saw it while encamped at Warunda Creek in October, 1909. 
It is nowhere plentiful, generally seen in pairs and very shy and wary.” 
Captain S. A. White later wrote : “ Strepera fusca was not nearly so 
numerous as in 1909. The male feeds the female on the nest, and the latter 
makes the same gurgling and gulping sound as the young Magpie does when 
being fed. These birds are very wary, and when alarmed will keep just out of 
gunshot flying on from tree to tree. Every time a flight is made the bird gives 
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