232 UROLESTES MELANOLEUCUS 
Genus 1. UROLESTRES. 
Bill stout, but short, the culmen curved, with a strong notch near the 
tip; nostril oval without membrane, overhung but not generally concealed 
by the projecting frontal feathers; gape with strong rictal bristles; feathers 
of the crown and neck lanceolate; wings somewhat rounded, the first 
primary more than half the second, the fourth and fifth the longest; tail 
much graduated and more than twice the length of the wing; feathers of 
the flanks elongated and pointed, entirely black in the males, and black and 
white in the females ; sexes otherwise similar in plumage, which is entirely 
black and white. 
Type. 
Basanistes, Licht. (non Burm., Crust. 1836), Verz. 
Vog. and Saugeth. Kaffernl. p. 12 (1842) . . . U. melanoleucus. 
Urolestes, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 75 (1850) . . . .« U. melanoleucus. 
The genus is confined to Africa, south of the Equator, and contains a 
single species. 
Urolestes melanoleucus. 
Lanius melanoleucus, Jard. and Selby, Ill. Orn. pt. viii. pl. 115 (1831) 
Orange Ewer. 
Urolestes melanoleucus, Gadow, Cat. B. M. viii. p. 229 (1883); Symonds, 
Ibis, 1887, p. 331 Kroonstad ; Shelley, B. Afr. i. No. 690 (1896) ; 
Stark and Sclater, Birds 8. Afr., ii. p. 3 (1901); Reichen. Vog. 
Afr. ii. p. 627 (1903); Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 226 Orange R.; 
Swynnerton, Ibis, 1907, p. 45 Gazaland; Chubb, J. S. A. Orn. 
Union vy. p. 68 (1909) Matabeleland ; W. Sclater, Ibis, 1911, p. 282. 
Lanius melanoleucos melanoleucos, Schiebel, J. f. O. 1906, p. 182. 
Lanius melanurus, Licht. Verz. Kaffernl., p. 12 (1842). 
Basanistes cissoides, Licht, (non Vieill.) J. c. 
Urolestes melanoleucus damarensis, Neum. J. f. 0.1900, p. 262 Reheboth 
(Damaraland) and Udschi (Kalahart). 
Urolestes equatorialis, Reichen. J. f. O. 1887, p. 65 Gaza Mis. German 
East Africa; id. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 628 (1903). 
Lanius melanoleucos equatorialis, Schiebel, J. f. O. 1906, p. 182. 
Adult male. Slightly crested; feathers of head and neck lanceolate ; 
general plumage glossy black, usually with a brown shade on the chest as 
well as on the throat; lower back greyish white passing into pure white 
towards the sides of the body; scapulars, basal portion of the primaries 
and the tips of all the quills, white; tail-feathers sometimes tipped with 
white. Iris brown; bill and feet black. Total length 18 inches, culmen 0:8, 
wing 5°25, tail 13:2, tarsus 1:3. 
