CRACTICUS QUOYII.
Quoy’s Crow Shrike.
Barita Quoyi, Less. Zool. de la Coq., tom. i. p. 639. pi. 24.—lb. Traité d’Orn., p. 345.
Mol-gol-ga, Aborigines of Port Essington.
W e have abundant evidence th at New Guinea and the continent of Australia belong to one and the same
group of islands, and th at both countries are adorned with similar forms of botany and zoology. In some
instances the same species are found to inhabit both countries, and o f this fact the present bird is an
example. M. Temminck, to whom I showed specimens killed in Australia, assured me th at they were
identical with those from New Guinea. The northern coast is the only portion o f Australia in which this
bird has been observed. I t is tolerably abundant at Po rt Essington, where it inhabits the mangrove
swamps generally, even those close to the settlement.
Mr. Gilbert states that it is one of the most shy and wary birds that can well be imagined; and that
the nature of its usual haunts precludes in a great measure all chance of getting a sight o f it. He has never
met with it in any other situation than the darkest and thickest parts of the mangroves, where there is a
great depth o f mud, and where the roots o f the trees are very thickly intertwined ; it is among these roots
th at it is constantly seen searching for crabs. Its note is short and monotonous, and very like the name
given to it by the aborigines, Mol-gol-ga, the second syllable being prolonged and forming the highest
n o te ; it also utters other sounds, some of them resembling those o f the Cracticus leuconotus; a t other times
it frequently emits a note very similar to the cry of young birds for food.
The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of crabs, aud occasionally of coleoptera, neuroptera,
and the larvae of insects o f various kinds.
The entire plumage black, each feather of the upper and under surface broadly margined with deep glossy
g re e n ; irides dark reddish brown; hill very light ash-grey, passing into leaden grey a t the base, and dark
bluish grey on the culmen near the t ip ; legs and feet greenish grey.
The bill appears to vary very much in colour; being in some instances entirely ash-grey, except a t the
tip, where it is b lack ; while in others the basal two-thirds is black and the tip g r e y : whether this difference
is occasioned by age or sex has not yet been ascertained.
The 6gure yepresents a male of the natural size.