CRACTICUS. 
61 
species, differing only in the nest being more compactly made and 
warmly lined. A set of eggs, three in number, taken near 
Hobart in September 1885, are of a greenish-grey ground colour, 
two of the specimens, being blotched and marked as if with a pen 
with light umber, while appearing as if beneath the surface of the 
shell are irregular shaped spots of bluish-grey, becoming confluent 
near the larger end, the other specimen (C) is rounded in form, 
ground colour light green, thickly covered with blotches of umber 
brown, and entirely free from the bluish-grey markings which 
appear in the other specimens. Length (A) 1 '5 x 1 -1 inch ; (B) 
1-45 x 1-9 inch; (C) 1-37 x M inch. 
This species commences to breed in September, and continues 
during the two following months. 
Hab. Tasmania. (Ramsay.) 
Genus CRACTICUS, Vicillot. 
CRACTICUS TORQUATUS, Latham. 
Collared Crow-shrike. 
Gould, ITandbh. hds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 99, p. 184. 
I have seen this species in nearly every part of Victoria and 
New South Wales. It builds an open nest, outwardly composed 
of fine sticks, lined with roots, and is placed in any suitable tree, 
according to the locality which it inhabits ; it is usually placed in 
the top of a gum-sapling or a musk (Olearia arqophi/lla), and 
when frequenting the edges of creeks and water-courses, it resorts 
to the Melaleuca. 
The eggs are from three to four in number for a sitting, oval in 
form, and very variable in their tint and markings. I give the 
description of three of the varieties most usually found : 
Var. A. Ground colour light olive-brown with a well defined 
zone of reddish-brown spots, intermingled with others of bluish- 
