70 
HORN EXPEDITION—AVES. 
white. It is possible that tliese specimens are hybrids between the White-Viacked 
and the Black-backed Crow-Shiikcs, G. leuconota and G. tibicen^ for the range of 
both species extends over the greater portion of South Australia. I have seen 
black feathex'S occasionally on the backs of immature and xidult birds of G. 
leuconota, but never forming so broad and distinct a band as in the specimens 
referred to.* 
[Although birds of this genus are amongst the most common nearly every- 
whei’e else thi’oughout Australia, in Centi’al Australia they are very rai’e. After 
leaving Hei’gott, the lii’st pair of these birds was seen at Crown Point, and 
although a sharp look-out was kept for them, they wei’e not again seen until 
rexiching Owen Springs and Heaviti’ee Gap. The specimens secui’ed were of the 
following dimensions:—Male, weight, 9^ ounces; length, 15| inches; aci’oss 
wings, 29| inches. Female, 9 ounces; length, 15^ inches; aci’oss wings, 24^ 
inches. 
No. 25. Chacttcus niguigularis, Gould. Black-throated Crow-Shrike. 
Vanga nigrogularis, Gould, Pi’oc. Zool. Soc., 1836, p. 143. 
Cracticus nigrogularis, Gould, Bd. Austr., fob, Vol. II., pi. 49 (1848) ; 
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., VoL I., 2nd series, p. 1087 (1886). 
Cracticus nigrigularis, Gadow, Brit. Mus. Cat. Bds., Vol. VIII., p. 95 (1883). 
Cracticus robustus. North, Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds., p. 62, pi. ix., 6g. 8 
(1889). 
A. ? ad. sk., Finke River. 
B. $ ad. sk., Goydei’’s Well. 
C. $ imm. sk., Stevenson’s Creek. 
[These birds were frequently met with, and their merry song at early morn 
was listened to with pleasure. Perched on a dead branch, the black-thi’oated Crow- 
* Since the above was in type Mr. G. E. Shepherd has recorded in Volume XII. of “ The Victorian Naturalist,” 
p. C8, similar specimens obtained and observed by him in different parts of Victoria, and he also sugj^ests the 
probability of these birds with the narrow black dorsal bands being' hybrids between the White-backed and the 
Black-backed Crow-Shrikes; or another species altogether. The great variation, however, in the width of this 
band, which in some specimens is reduced to a narrow line of scattered black feathers, and also, as Mr. Shepherd 
j)oints out, “ varies considerably from a complete saddle to little more than a ring,” precludes the possibility of it 
being a distinct species, but tends strongly to confirm the opinion that these birds are hybrids. Mr. Shepherd 
states that G. (ibiccii. is never found in the neighliourhood where he obtained his sjtocimens to which he refers, and 
never, apparently, get so far south ; it therefore may be due to atavism if we admit that G. leuconata was derived 
from the black-backed species, but I feel confident that it is the result of hybridization, for I have never yet 
observed these distinct black bands or narrow lines of scattered black feathers on the backs of examples from 
Tasmania, where only the White-backed species of Crow-Shrike is found. 
