26 



l'ICO-PASSERf;s. 



Family ARTAMID^ ^. 



Genus ARTAMUS. 

 Yieillot, Analyse, p. 41 (1816). 



A. Nasal capsule bony, leaving small rounded nasal aperture. 



B. Posterior extremity of the palatines gradually passing into 



a long slender process continuous with its internal angle. 



C. Frontal zygomatic pi'ocess long, broad at base ; squamosal 



hardly marked, but 



D. Angular without backward prolongation. 



Fio-. IG. Fi?-. 1.5. 



i^_£. soJ- Ifp- ^/P- 



Fig. 15. — Lateral view of skull of Artamus leucogader (enlarged). — io.f., 

 interoibital fenestra ; so.f., supraorbital fenestra ; f.~-p., frontal zygo- 

 matic process ; s.z.p., squamosal zygomatic process. (From a specimen 

 in the Museum of the Iloyal College of Surgeons.) 



Fig. 16. — Ventral view of palate (enlarged). 



Artamus fuscus. 



Artamus fuscus, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xvii. p. 297 (1817) ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xiii, p. 11 (1890) ; Oatos, Faun. 

 Brit. Ind., Birds, i. p. 498 (1889). 



The Ashy Swallow-Shrike. 



Hah. India to Tenasserim, Siam, and China. 



* According to Nitzsch (cf. also Forbes, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 838), Artamus 

 wants the aftershaft of the feather. Eyton gives a short description of the 

 skeleton of A. leucogaster in his ' Osteologia ' (p. 12-3). 



The skidl of specimen 106 a seems to show that Artamus is a Laniine 

 form, and has nothing to do with the Starlings. The prolongation of the 

 posterior internal angle of the palatines as a long and delicate spine and 

 the osseous olfactory capsule prove the alhnity of Artaiuus to Lanius beyond 

 a doubt. 



