_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
CRACTICUS QUOYII.
Quoy’s Crow-Shrike.
_Barita Quoyi_, Less. Zool. de la Coq., tom. i. p. 639. pl. 24.—Ib.
Traité d’Orn., p. 345.
_Mol-göl-ga_, Aborigines of Port Essington.
We have abundant evidence that New Guinea and the continent of Australia
belong to one and the same group of islands, and that both countries are
adorned with similar forms of botany and zoology. In some instances the
same species are found to inhabit both countries, and of this fact the
present bird is an example. M. Temminck, to whom I showed specimens
killed in Australia, assured me that they were identical with those from
New Guinea. The northern coast is the only portion of Australia in which
this bird has been observed. It is tolerably abundant at Port 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 of 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 of mud, and where the roots
of the trees are very thickly intertwined; it is among these roots that
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-göl-ga_, the second syllable being prolonged and forming the
highest note; it also utters other sounds, some of them resembling those
of the _Cracticus leuconotus_; at 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, and
occasionally of coleoptera, neuroptera, and the larvæ of insects of
various kinds.
The entire plumage black, each feather of the upper and under surface
broadly margined with deep glossy green; irides dark reddish brown; bill
very light ash-grey, passing into leaden grey at the base, and dark
bluish grey on the culmen near the tip; legs and feet greenish grey.
The bill appears to vary very much in colour; being in some instances
entirely ash-grey, except at the tip, where it is black; while in others
the basal two-thirds is black and the tip grey: whether this difference
is occasioned by age or sex has not yet been ascertained.
The figure represents a male of the natural size.
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