518 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



An anomalous shrike (female) shot by me at Pang Makham Phong, 

 December 30, 1936, is neither tricolor nor schach but is so near the lat- 

 ter that it may conveniently be placed with this race, which is other- 

 wise not recorded from Thailand. It should be sought as a rare winter 

 visitor to our provinces. 



My specimen, which has the brown rectrices of immaturity, is evi- 

 dently a bird of the year. 



Typical schach resembles tricolor but differs in having only the fore- 

 head, lores, ocular region, and ear coverts black ; the crown, nape, and 

 upper back ashy gray, this color changing imperceptibly into the 

 rufous of the remaining upperparts. 



This example differs from true schach by having the predominantly 

 gray crown and nape irregularly overlaid with a blackish tinge. We 

 have here either a case of atavism in the resident Lanius schach tri- 

 color or, more probably, one of the hybrids between tricolor and schach 

 discussed at some length by Dunajewski in his revision of the species 

 ( Journ. f iir Orn., vol. 87, 1939', p. 45) . I have examined a very similar 

 specimen from the neighborhood of Laokay, Tongking, taken April 

 28, 1924. 



LANIUS SCHACH NIPALENSIS Hodgson 



Tibetan Gray-backed Shrike 



[Lanius] Nipalensis Hodgson, India Rev., vol. 1, 1837, pp. 445-446 (no locality 



given=Nepal). 

 Lanius schach tephronotus, GYiDENSTOLfE, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 



1913, p. 32 (Ban Huai Horn); Ibis, 1920, p. 469 ( Ban Huai Horn).— de 



Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, p. 549 (Chiang Rai, 



Chiang Saen, Doi Suthep). 

 Lanius tephronotus, Deignan, Journ. Siam. Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, p. 146 



(Doi Suthep) ; 1936, p. 122 (Doi Suthep). — de Schauensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. 



Sci. Philadelphia, 1934, p. 222 (Doi Suthep). 



The gray-backed shrike is only a winter visitor to northern Thailand, 

 where I have found it from December 5 (Doi Chiang Dao) to April 6 

 (on the mountains between Wiang Pa Pao and Muang Phan). While 

 rather common in Chiang Rai Province, it is rare and local farther 

 south ; Gyldenstolpe's bird from Ban Huai Horn and mine from Doi 

 Suthep seem to be the most southerly yet recorded from the Kingdom. 



At Chiang Mai, solitary birds are occasionally seen in bushy clear- 

 ings on Doi Suthep from 3,300 to 5,500 feet but never at lower eleva- 

 tions ; in the Mae Khong drainage, however, the form occurs through- 

 out the plains and, about Muang Fang, may be observed at almost any 

 overgrown hoi in the lowland evergreen, even in close proximity to 

 human habitation. 



The adult of either sex differs from those of the preceding forms 

 in having the crown, nape, and entire mantle soft slaty gray, changing 

 to dull rufous on the rump and upper tail coverts; the white patch 



