1867.] ON THE RUFOUS-TAILED SlIEIKES. 39 



Enneoctonus cristatus (Linn.), Bp., Consp. i. p. S62. no. 5 (ex As. cent. & Bengal). Ilovsf. & 

 Moore, Cat. E. I. Mus. i. p. 167. no. 218 (ex Nepaul & Tenasserim). Cab., Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 72. 



Enneoctonus lucionensis (Linn.), G. K. Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 291. no. 4, iii. App. p. 42. no. 54. 

 Swinh., Ibis, vi. p. 420 (1864) (ex Ceylon). 



La7misphoemcurus; Fall, j {hiemalis X), ? , Sundev., Birds of Calc. A. N. H. xviii. p. 169 (1846) 

 (ex Calcutta). Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 303 (1846) (ex Calcutta). 



' Lanius melanofis, Cuv. Mus. Paris, j^tm. Puch., Arch, du Mus. vii. p. 424. Val., Diet. Sc. N. 

 xl. p. 227 (1826) (ex Pondicherry). 



Lanius siiperciliosus, Lath., Blyth, Cat. Mus. Calc. p. 152. no. 874, var. cristatus (ex Bengal 

 & Burmah). Jerd., 2nd Suppl. Cat. no. 51 his (ex Ind. merid.). Layard, A. N. H. 2nd series Ibis, 1867, 

 xiii. p. 130. no. 143 (1854) (ex Ceylon). Tennant, N. H. of Ceylon, p. 2G6. ' P- 213. ' 



Lanius ferrugicejjs, Hodgs., lud. Kev. 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 Linnajus 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. cristatus was intended. Buffon (H. N. Ois. i. p. 306) observes that 

 the disposition of the occipital feathers which led Edwards to regard 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 Thamnojjiiilns doliatus (Linn.). Yet in 1853 we find Prince Bonaparte (l. c.) 

 continuing the error by describing the Bengal Shrike as subcrested. Edwards's tyj)e was sent 

 from Bengal. Specimens which I have compared from Moulmein, Nipaul, Maunbhoom, Southern 

 India, 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 crow^n, &c." 

 But his specimens may have been birds in seasonal plumage, or perhaps females. Mr, Layard, 

 in his ' Ornithology of Ceylon ' (/. c), regarded it as " a variety, but not sufficiently 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. sujjerciliosus, Lath. ; and L. cristatus, 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 frontier. According to most of the Indian ornithologists it remains in the plains ibis, 1SG7, 

 of India during the cold weather only. Its breeding-home has not as yet been made known. !'• ^^'^' 

 The nests and eggs found by Colonel Tickell (J. A. S. B. 1848, xvii. p. 302. no. 31) in the plains 

 of India during the month of June are said by Dr. Jerdon (I. c.) to have been those of a Bulbul. 

 Dr. E. Buchanan Hamilton, however, distinctlji, states, in his MS. notes (H. & M., Cat. E. I. 

 Mus. i. p. 168. no. 218), " this Shrike builds its nests in trees and bushes." Captain Beavan (/. c.) 



