GYMNORHINA LEUCONOTA, Gonid.
White-backéd Crow-Shrike.
Barita Tibicen, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de la Coq., pl. 20.—Less. Traité d’Om., p. 345.
Goore-bat, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
T h i s fine species o f Gymnorhina, which has been confounded by the French writers with the G. Tibicen,
inhabits South Australia, and extends its range as far to the eastward as the colony o f : New South Wales.
I hear that it is tolerably abundant at Port Philip, and that it is sometimes seen on thè plains near Yass.
For my own part I have never met with it in New South Wales, but observed it to be rather abundant in
South Australia. In the extreme shyness o f its disposition it presents a remarkable contrast to the G. Tibicen ;
it was indeed so wary and so difficult to approach, that it required the utmost ingenuity to obtain a sufficient
number o f specimens necessary for my purpose. Plain and open hilly parts o f the country are the localities
it prefers, where it dwells much on the ground, feeding upon locusts and other insects. In size it is fully
as large as any species o f the genus yet discovered ; it runs over the ground with great facility, and the
long flights it frequently takes across the plains from one belt o f trees to another, indicated greater powers
o f flight than is possessed by its near allies ;r-in other parts of its economy it so nearly resembles the
G. Tibicen, that it would be useless to repeat a description o f them here. The same single note and
early carol of small companies perched on some leafless branch o f a Eucalyptus appears characteristic of
all the members of the genus.
It breeds in September and October, constructing a nest of dried sticks in an upright fork o f a gum- or
mahogany-tree. The eggs are three in number, very long in form, and o f a dull bluish white, in some
instances tinged with red, marked with large bold blotches or zigzag streakings o f brownish red or light
chestnut ; the average length of the eggs is one inch and eight lines, and breadth one inch and one line.
Occasionally eggs are met with which are spotted with black or umber-brown.
The sexes when fully adult present no other outward difference than the larger size of the female. Immature
birds of both sexes have the whole of the back clouded with grey, and the bill o f a less pure ash-
colour.
Back o f the neck, back, upper and under coverts o f the wings, basal portion of the spurious wing, upper
and under tail-coverts, and base o f the tail-feathers white ; remainder o f the plumage and the shafts of the
white portion of the tail-feathers glossy black ; irides light hazel ; bill bluish lil'L-purplc, passing into black
at the tip ; legs and feet blackish grey.
The Plate represents the two sexes rather less than the size of life.