Piping shrike

The image on the Flag of South Australia is a Piping Shrike, which is more commonly known as a White Backed Magpie.[1][2][3][4] The Piping Shrike is sometimes mistakenly associated with the Magpie Lark, aka the Murray Magpie, Pee Wee and Mud Lark. This confusion came about because some did not realise that the image always shows the back of the bird. Once it is realised that it is the back of the bird, it can be seen that it is unmistakably a White Backed Magpie. The South Australian Governor used the term Piping Shrike for the White Backed Magpie in correspondence, and wrote the words "Australian Piping Shrike" on the back of drawing proposals of the bird for the State badge of South Australia in the early 1900s.[2] The name Piping Shrike is closely linked to the early name for the Australian Magpie. From the early 1800s, the name Piping Crow Shrike was used for the Black Backed Magpie, which is the nominate race of the Australian Magpie in today’s taxonomies. The name that was used for the White Backed Magpie, the Piping Shrike on the State Badge, was the White Backed Crow Shrike.[5] Both are in the same species in today’s taxonomies. A review of newspaper articles from the early twentieth century shows that people were grouping both Black Backed Magpies and White Backed Magpies under the general name “Piping Crow Shrikes”.[6] The Latin name for the White Backed Magpie is Gymnorhina tibicen telonocua. Tibicen relates to piping or piper, hence the name Piping Shrike.[7]

Flag of South Australia featuring the piping shrike

Origins

The piping shrike first appeared on the Governor's ensign in 1903,[8] and was also on the State Badge which was proclaimed in 1904.[9] The original reports credited it to H. P. Gill who was the director of the School of Arts, with some input and critique from the Governor General Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson.[8] The nephew of Robert Craig of the School of Arts claims that he was solely responsible for the original design.[10] A similar argument is made by the relatives of the Adelaide artist Frances Jane Warhurst who claim that she based it on the eagle on the seal of the Prussian consul, a close friend of hers.[10] There are also reports of a later version also credited to Gill in 1910.[10] The badge design, which set the bird against a backdrop of the yellow risen sun of Australian Federation, was incorporated into the state flag (1904) and the Coat of Arms (1984).

Acceptance of The State Badge of South Australia

On Wednesday 27 February 1901 the painting by H.P Gill (Link to Original Watercolour) was approved by both the Governor and the Premier of South Australia as the design of the new State Badge for South Australia. The Premier wrote on the back of the painting “Accepted (without pomegranate)”. The Governor wrote the following heraldic description on the back of the painting: “The rising sun – or – Thereon an Australian piping shrike displayed proper – under a pomegranate flower amid leaves and standing on a gum-staff, raguly, gules and vert.” (or = gold, displayed proper = in its natural colours, raguly = with oblique lines, gules = red, vert = green). The Governor crossed out gum and changed gum-staff to staff of gum tree.[2]

Identification of the bird

The original reports state that the Piping Shrike is the Australian Magpie, [8] and government sources specify the subspecies as the White-Backed Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen leuconota).[11] The official common name for Gymnorhina tibicen leuconota is the White Backed Magpie. The name Piping Shrike is not used in current bird books, but it remains as a correct name for the bird because of the continuous history of the name of the bird on the state flag of South Australia since the early 1900s.[12][4][2][13][3][1] The following words, endorsed by Professor Gisela Kaplan, an eminent Australian authority on the Australian Magpie, should leave no doubt. ‘--- Confusion has arisen about the state emblem because it is easy to think one is viewing the front of the bird. Once one realises that one is viewing the back of the bird, one can see all the distinguishing features of the White Backed Magpie. The bird on the SA State Flag is without doubt a White Backed Magpie.”

The connection of this bird to the name Piping Shrike can be seen in this early observation by explorer Charles Sturt in the 1840s:

"GYMNORHINA LEUCONOTA GOULD., The White-backed Crow Shrike. This bird is somewhat larger than, and very much resembles a magpie, but the proportion of white is greater, and there is no metallic or varied tint on the black feathers as on the European bird. In South Australia it is a winter bird, and his clear fine note was always the most heard on the coldest morning, as if that temperature best suited him. All the species of this genus are easily domesticated, and learn to pipe tunes. They are mischievous birds about a house, but are useful in a garden. I had one that ranged the fields to a great distance round the house, but always returned to sleep in it." Note: This observation is comparing the White Backed Crow Shrike (earlier name for the White Backed Magpie) to the Eurasian Magpie known to the early English colonists.

Over time, Australian Magpies have been associated with the terms “Crow”, “Shrike”, and “Magpie”. These names were given to them by early arrivals as there was a perceived similarity to the birds, having these names, in Europe. It is now known that the Australian Magpie is neither a Magpie, Crow, nor Shrike in the European sense of the words. The Australian Magpie is most closely related to the Australian butcherbirds.[14] Usage of the common names Piping Crow-Shrike and White Backed Crow-Shrike eventually lost favour and were replaced by Black Backed Magpie and White Backed Magpie. However, the very apt name tibicen, which is related to piping, is retained in the scientific name Gymnorhina tibicen for all races of the species.

In Australian Bird Names Origins and Meanings, Fraser and Gray include “Piping Shrike, as formally described on the South Australian flag and coat of arms” in the section on other names for Gymnorhina tibicen telonocua (the White Backed Magpie).[1]

References
  1. Fraser, Ian; Gray, Jeannie (2019). Australian Bird Names: Origins and Meanings. Clayton South, Victoria, Australia: CSIRO Publishing. ISBN 9781486311637.
  2. Kirby, Miles (1986). Accepted without pomegranate: The story of the piping shrike (Original ed.). Adelaide: M. Kirby.
  3. "The state emblem of SA". SA Memory: State Library of SA. State Library of SA. 14 September 2006. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  4. "Using the state insignia and emblems". Government of South Australia. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  5. Harcus, William (1876). South Australia: Its history, resources and productions. Adelaide: Government of South Australia. p. 288. ISBN 9783337315450.
  6. "The Piping Crow Shrikes 1934". Trove. Weekly Times Wild Nature Series - Number 90. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  7. "Tibicen". Wikipedia. 27 October 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  8. "THE GOVERNOR'S ENSIGN". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 16 March 1903. p. 7. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  9. "THE GOVERNOR'S FLAG". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 15 January 1904. p. 4. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  10. Foley, Carol A. (1996). The Australian flag : colonial relic or contemporary icon?. Sydney: Federation Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN 1862871884.
  11. "State insignia – Government of South Australia". Sa.gov.au. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  12. "The new SA Flag". Adelaide Advertiser. 14 Mar 1903.
  13. "SA Yearbook 1995 Page 81" (PDF). Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian Bureau of Statistics SA Office. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  14. Kaplan, Gisela (2019). Australian Magpie - Biology and Behaviour of an Unusual Songbird (Second ed.). Clayton South, Victoria, Australia: CSIRO Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 9781486307241. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
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