STREPERÀ GRACULINA.
Pied Crow-Shrike.
Réveilleur de Viale de Norfolk?, Dand., tom. ii. p. 267.
Conm graculinus (White-vented Crow), White’s Bot. Bay, pi. in p. 251.
Coracias streperà, Lath. Ind. Om., voi. i. p. 173.
Conm streperus, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. ii. pi. 86.
Noisy Roller, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., voi. ii. p. 121.
Le Grand Calibé, Le Vaili. Ois. de Par., &c., pi. 24.
Cracticus streperne, Virili. Gal. dea: Qis., pi. 109.—Vig. an4 Horsf. in Linn. Trana., voi. xv. p. 261.
Gracula streperà, Shaw, Gen. Zool., voi. vii. p. 462.
Rarità streperà, Temm. Man., part i. p. li.
Coranica streperà, Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.
Streperà, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 329.
Streperà graculina, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 50.
T h i s species was originally described and figured in White's 1 Voyage to New South Wales’ : it is consequently
the oldest and most familiarly known member of the group to which it belongs. It is. very
generally distributed over the. colony o f New South Wales, inhabiting alike the brushes near the coast,
those o f the mountain ranges, and also the forests of Eucalypti which clothe the plains and more open
country. As a great part o f its food consists o f seeds, berries and fruits, it is more arboreal in its habits
than some of the other species of its group, whose structure better adapts them for progression on the
ground, and whose food principally consists of insects and their larvm. The habitat of the present bird
appears to be,eonfined to the south-eastern portions, of the continent, where, as is the case with all birds
whose range is so limited, it is a stationary species, merely moving from one district to another according
to the season; at one time being more numerous on the;open coast, and at another among the brushes, as
each may offer it a greater variety or more abundant supply o f food : the hilly portions of the country
intersected with deep ravines are, however, decidedly its most congenial localities. Like the other members
o f the genus it is mostly seen in small companies, varying from four to six in number, seldom either singly
or in pairs: I am not,' however, inclined to consider them as gregarious birds in the strict sense o f the
word, believing as I do that each of these small companies is composed o f a pair and their progeny, which
appear to keep together from the birth o f the latter until the natural impulse, for pairing prompts them
to separate.
Their fiight is very different from that o f the Crow, (which they much resemble in outward appearance)
being much less protracted, and never o f an elevated character; its utmost extent is from one part of the
forest to another, or across a gully, in effecting which they sometimes pass over the tops of the trees, while
at others they accomplish the distance by flitting from tree to tree. It is during flight that the markings of
this bird are displayed to the greatest advantage, the strong contrast of its colours then rendering it a conspicuous
object in the bush : while on the wing also it frequently causes the woods to ring with its peculiar
noisy cry, by which its presence is often indicated when otherwise it would not be seen. On the ground
it hops over the surface with the greatest facility.
The nest, which is usually constructed on the branches of low trees, sometimes even on those of the
Casuarinas, is of a large size, round, open, and cup-shaped, built of sticks and lined with moss and grasses ;
the eggs, which I was not so fortunate as to procure, are generally three or four in number.
The flesh o f this species is frequently eaten by the colonists, and is by some considered a delicacy.
Of all the species o f this singular and well-defined geuus, the present, although not the largest in stature,
is by far the handsomest, its markings being more clearly defined and the tints of its plumage more rich
and contrasted than those of any of its congeners, the black being as deep as jet, and the white pure and
unspotted; it differs also from all its allies yet discovered in having the basal half of the primaries and the
basal half and the tips of the tail-feathers together with those portions of the shafts pure white.
The plumage of both sexes at all ages is so precisely similar, that by dissection alone can we distinguish
the male from his mate, or the young from the adult; the female is, however, always a trifle less in all her
admeasurements, and the young birds have the corners of the mouth more fleshy and of a brighter yellow
than the adults.
All the plumage fine bluish black with the exception of the basal half of the primaries, the basal half and
the tips of the tail-feathers, including those portions o f their shafts and the under tail-coverts which are
snow-white ; irides beautiful yellow; bill and feet black.:.