54 ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS 



from the base .of bill through the eye , the lores being 

 white. In a more advanced stage, in which the crown is 

 already gray but the flanks are still showing the dark 

 . cross-bands , the black stripe through the eye has appeared , 

 but is still interrupted by the white loral patch, which 

 afterwards becomes smaller until it disappears entirely in 

 the fully adult stage , in which the said black stripe is so 

 much enlarged as to cover the whole front, the loral and 

 ocular region and the ear-coverts , while the lower surface 

 of the bird has become entirely white. 



The specimen from Singapore is in fully adult, that 

 from Borneo in immature stage , the other localities are 

 represented by birds in different stage of plumage. 



A revision of the other rufous-tailed Shrikes in the Leyden 

 Museum shows that they belong to the following four species : 



1. Lanius hucephalus , Schl. Faun. Jap. pi. 14. 



8 specimens from Japan. 



2. Lanius cristatus , L. S. N. I. p. 134 (1766). For further synonymy 



conf. Gadow, Cat. Birds Br. Mus. Vol. VIII. p. 271 (1883). 



8 specimens (Bengal 2 , India 2 , Hindostan 1 , Tenas- 

 serim 2 , Pegu 1 , Amur 2). 



3. Lanius superciiiosus , Lath, (see Gadow, 1. c. p. 273). 



8 specimens in different stage , all from Java. 

 It is not easy to keep the two last-named species dis- 

 tinct from each other in all the different stages of plumage , 

 and even fully adult specimens are found with the broad 

 white front of superciiiosus and the ashy brown back and 

 whitish lower surface of cristatus, while on the other hand 

 a fully adult specimen , also from Java , has all the cha- 

 racters of the true superciiiosus, except the white frontal 

 and superciliary band which is as narrow as in the true 

 cristatus. In consequence of this observation I yield to the 

 opinion uttered by Capt. Legge in his Birds of Ceylon, 

 p. 379 , that L. superciiiosus might be a rufous race of 

 L. cristatus, if these intermediate forms are not the results 



Notes from the Lieyden ]Museu.m , Vol. IX. 



