350 DRYOSCOPUS CUBLA 
white margin, sometimes widening out at the ends of a few of the feathers ; 
lower back and puff feathers pure white or with a faint wash of dusky grey 
on the ends of some of the feathers; scapulars black with the greater 
portion of the outer webs of the feathers white ; wings black, with a variable 
amount of white edges on the feathers, broadest on the median and greater- 
coverts and the secondaries, and often absent on the other feathers ; under 
wing-coverts, edge of wing at the pinion, inner edges of quills and the 
entire under parts pure white, sometimes tinted with grey, especially on the 
flanks. Iris red; bill black; feet grey. Total length 7 inches, culmen 
0-7, wing 3:2, tail 2:8, tarsus 0-95. Durban, ¢, 28. 3. 74 (Shelley). 
Adult female. Differs in having more white on the sides of the head, 
the front and sides of the forehead and the sides of the head up to the level 
of the middle of the eye being white; lower back and sides of the upper 
back grey washed with brownish buff; lower throat and the breast also tinted 
with buff; a portion of the keel of the lower mandible pale; iris yellow to 
red. Wing 3:05. Durban, ? (Gordge). 
Immature. Similar to the last, from which it differs in having the pale 
portions of the scapulars, wings and under parts washed with buff; lower 
back slightly browner ; bill with the lower mandible and a portion of the 
upper one pale. Wing3:1. Durban, 3, juv., 24. 3. 74 (Shelley). 
Subspecies D. c. hamatus. The male cannot be distinguished from that 
of the typical race; the female, however, has no trace of brownish buff wash 
on the puff-feathers of the rump, this part being a pearly-grey. Varying in 
size, but on the whole not differing from the typical form. Wing 3:3, Beira, 3 
(Grant). Wing 3-2 and 3:3, Nairobi, g (Delamere). 
The Cubla Puff-back Shrike ranges over the greater part of 
south and east Africa from the Knysna to northern Angola, 
Nyasaland and British East Africa. 
The males throughout this wide extent of country cannot 
be distinguished from one another, and though there is a little 
variation in dimensions it seems to be more or less dependent 
on local conditions, and examples from Knysna in Cape Colony 
and Melinda in British East Africa and Malanje in Angola 
are alike in this respect. Among the females, however, there 
is a certain amount of variation. Those from Cape Colony 
and Natal have always a distinct olive-brown wash over the 
pearly-grey puff-feathers; this is absent from birds collected 
in Rhodesia and further north, and is the character used by 
Reichenow to distinguish his Hast African subspecies D. c. 
