Viscount Walden on the Rufous-tailed Shrikes. 211 



98. Phalacrocorax bicristatus, Pall, ; Carbo bicristatus, 

 T. & S., Faun. Jap. p. 130, pis. 84<, 84, b. 



An adult male and female and a young bird were obtained at 

 Hakodadi, March 1865. 



Bill black ; eye dark green ; legs and feet black. 



XII. — On the Rufous-tailed Shrikes. 

 By Viscount Walden, F.Z.S. 



(Plates V. & VI.) 



I PROPOSE to apply the sectional designation above given to a 

 small group of the genus Lanius, which appears to be restricted 

 to a part of Southern Africa, to the continent of Asia, and to 

 some of its islands. The members of this group are character- 

 ized by the males being clothed in a more or less rufous-coloured 

 plumage, by the tail being invariably rufous, and by the wings 

 being without any white speculum on the primaries. lu general 

 terms they may be said to form a group in which the males 

 adopt a style of plumage similar to that which we find on the 

 female of L. collurio, Linn., and L. bucephalus, T. & Sch. Their 

 relationship, perhaps hereditary, to L. collurio, through the female 

 line, if I may so speak, displays itself most prominently in the 

 rufous-brown male of L. cristatus, Linn. The descent from this 

 species, through the female line, is again exhibited in the rufous- 

 grey males of L. arenarius, Blyth, and L. lucionensis, Linn. In 

 L. superciliosus, Lath., and L. phoenicurus, Pall., ap. Schrenck, we 

 find the darker rufous of L. collurio $ developed into a bright 

 rufous. On the other hand, in L. magnirostris, Less., the 

 influence of L. collurio 6 is to be found prevailing in the ashy 

 head of that species ; while in the rufous-coloured L. isabellinus, 

 H. & E., the white alar bar proclaims the affinity of the group, 

 by another character, to the Grey Shrikes. Regarding as I do 

 the affinities of colour which link the members of this section 

 together as merely signs of blood relationship, unaccompanied 

 by any very marked peculiarities of structure, I prefer retaining 

 them under the old generic title of Lanius to adopting that of 

 Otomela, Bp. (Rev. de Zool. 1853), founded by the Prince for 

 this section, without publishing its characters. 



N. S. VOL. III. Q 



