Viscount Walden on the Rufuus-t ailed Shrikes. 213 



Lanius ferrugiceps, Hodgs., Ind. Rev. 1857, p. 446. sp. 3 (ex 

 Nepaul). 



Otomela cristata (Linn.), Bp., Rev. de Zool. 1853, p. 437. no. 26 

 (ex As. cent., Bengal). 



Notwithstanding the inappropriate title given by Linnaeus on 

 the faith of Edwards's plate and description, there can be no doubt 

 that the common "Brown Shrike" of India is the species for which 

 the designation L. mstatus was intended. Buffon (H. N. Ois. i. 

 p. 306) observes that the disposition of the occipital feathers 

 which led Edwards to regai'd the bird as crested was purely 

 accidental ; and he points out that the author of the ' Gleanings ' 

 made a similar mistake in his description of Thamnophilus doliaiiis 

 (Linn.). Yet in 1853 we find Prince Bonaparte {I c.) continuing 

 the error by describing the Bengal Shrike as subcrested. Ed- 

 wards's type was sent from Bengal. Specimens which I have 

 compared from Moulmein, Nipaul, Maunbhoom, Southern Lidia, 

 the Deccan, Ceylon, Malabar, Assam, and Bootan do not exhibit 

 any distinctive characters. Mr. Blyth refers (/. c.) to a Ceylon 

 variety as being " very grey, no rufous on the crown, &c." But 

 his specimens may have been of birds in seasonal plumage, or 

 perhaps females. Mr. Layard, in his 'Ornithology of Ceylon^ 

 (/. c), regarded it as "a variety, but not sufiiciently distinct to 

 constitute a species, being simply paler and wanting the rufous 

 crown of the Indian bird.'^ Mr. Layard identified the Ceylon 

 form with L. super ciliosus, Lath.; and L. cristaius, Linn., of India 

 is decidedly much less rufous than the Malay species. But none 

 of the Ceylon specimens I have examined are to be distinguished 

 from the continental L. cristatus, Linn. Yet Dr. Jerdon (/. c.) 

 seems likewise to consider that Ceylon possesses a race differing 

 somewhat from the ordinary Indian form. It is, however, very 

 unlikely that a migratory Ceylon form can be distinct from a 

 migratory Indian species and still never be found in India. If 

 the Ceylon race is, in however small a degree, distinct from that 

 of India, examples of it, at two periods of each year, must occur 

 in India. 



The Brown Shrike does not seem to extend further south 

 than Tenasserim on the eastern side of continental India, nor 

 does it appear to cross the Sutlej and Indus on the north-western 



q2 



