38 ON THE BUFOUS-TAILED SHEIKES. [1867. 



1867. 



On the Biifous-tailed Shrikes. By Viscount Waldex, F.Z.S. 



Ibis. 1S67, 

 P- -11- [From ' The Ibis,' 1867, plates v. & vi. in orif/.] 



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 characterized 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 spccuhnn on the primaries. In 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. hucephalus, 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. cristatiis, Linn. The descent from this species, through the female 

 line, is again exhibited in the rufous-grey males of L. arenarius, Blyth, and L. liicioneusis, Linn. 

 In L. superciliosns. Lath., and L. phaenicurus, Pall., apud Schrenck, we find the darker rufous of 

 L. collurio 2 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. (Eev. de Zool. 1853), founded by the Prince for this 

 section, without publishing its characters. 



The species of the group are in great confusion ; and it is in the hope of introducing a little 

 - p'2i-/' order among them that I venture upon this attempt at a monograph. It will, I fear, be found 

 far from complete ; but in the present backward state of our knowledge of Eastern ornithology, 

 more especially of the geographical areas, limits of migration, and the sexual, seasonal, and 

 adolescent phases of the plumage of many Asiatic birds, it is frequently impossible to arrive at 

 final conclusions. 



1. L.\Nius CRiSTATUs, Linn., S. N. 1766, i. p. 134. no. 3. Gm., S. N. 1788, i. p. 298. no. 3. 

 Lath., Ind. Orn. i. p. 72. no. 17. Jerd., Birds Ind. i. p. 406. no. 261 (ex India) ; Jerd., lUust. 

 Ind. Orn. part 2 (ex Ind. merid.). Beavan, Ibis, 1865, p. 418. no. 261 (ex Maunbhoom). 



Lanius fulvvs, cristafus, Edw., Nat. Hist. Birds, ii. p. 125. no. 54 (ex Bengal). 



Crested lied or Stisset Butcher-bird, Edw., I. c. p. 54. pi. 54. 



Lanius hengalcnsis rufus, Briss., Orn. ii. p. 173. no. 13 (1760). 



Crested Bed Shrike, Lath., Syn. i. p. 170. no. 18. 



Woodchat Shrike, var. A, in part. Lath., G. H. ii. p. 16. no. 7 (ex Calcutta). 



Bufous-tailed Shrike, Lath., /. c. p. 17. no. 9 (ex Cawnpore). 



Supercilious Shrike, var. A, Lath., I. c. p. 36. no. 34 (ex India). 



