Hello John,
I doubt that that you were misunderstood. It is pretty clear. You might have missed that some of us are not so serious and like to get carried away with having fun with a topic.
It was always obvious that taxonomically it was close to the Cracticus Butcherbirds. As in I wonder what else would it be closest to? Beyond that, the point I was making is that as all living things are related, it is still a value judgement as to where to draw genus or other taxonomic dividing lines. Being in the same or different genus in no way prescribes that the group name or Common name show parallel connection. There are XXXXX finches formally in many genera (and families), there are many species that are distinctive enough to be given Common names quite different from names of closely related species. The Magpie happens to be one of them, given a name to suggest a similarity to something else superficially similar and only distantly related. The Australian Magpie is related to the European Magpie to the extent of being a passerine. The Australian Magpie is also related to the European Carp to the extent of being a vertebrate and is slightly closer related to us.
If it is called Black and white piping crow-shrike or Ground Butcherbird, it is still the same creature regardless.
Philip
