MALACONOTIN &. 147 
Tephrodornis sylvicola, Jerdon. 
264.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I p. 409; Butler, Deccan 
and South Mahratta country ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 392. 
THE MaLaBar Woop Surike. 
Length, 8°5 ; expanse, 14; wing, 4°5 ; tail, 3:25 ; tarsus, 0-9 ; bill 
at front, 0°7. 
Bill blackish ; irides wax-yellow ; legs plumbeous. 
Above slaty-cinereous ; rump white ; wings, tail, and some of the 
upper-coverts, dusky-brown ; a broad eye streak from the nostrils, 
through the eye, to beyond the ear-coverts, black ; beneath white, 
reddish-cinereous on the neck, breast, and flanks. 
The Malabar Wood Shrike is not common, and has only been 
recorded from the jungles west of Belgaum. 
Tephrodornis pondicerianus, Gm. 
265.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p, 410; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IIT, p. 464; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, 
p. 392 ; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 123 ; Swinhoe 
and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 65. 
THE CoMMON Woop Surike. 
Length, 6°5 to 7; expanse, 10; wing, 3°5; tail, 2:75 ; tarsus, 
0°75 ; bill at front, 0-62. 
Bill dusky-horny ; irides greenish-yellow ; legs plumbeous-brown. 
Above ashy-brownish; the feathers of the rump edged with 
white, and the upper tail-coverts deep brown ; beneath, chin and 
throat white, the rest whitish, with a tinge of reddish grey ; under 
tail-coverts white ; superciliary streak reddish-white ; Wings and 
tail dusky-brown, and with the two outer feathers on each side 
white at the base and also at the tip ; a dark brown band from the 
nostrils through the eye to the ear-coverts, 
The Common Wood Shrike is found in all the principal portions 
of our limits, but is much more numerous in some places than in 
others. It is a permanent resident, breeding generally in March 
and April. The nest, composed of fine roots and grass, and lined 
with wool and vegetable fibres, is a neat, well made, compact, 
shallow cup, coated on the exterior with cobwebs, and is built in 
the fork of atree. The eggs, three in number, are broadish oval 
in shape, delicate greenish-white in color, spotted and blotched 
with different shades of yellowish and reddish-brown. They 
measure 0°75 in length by 0°61 in breadth. 
Genus, Hemipus, Hodgson. 
Much as in Tephrodornis, but the bill more flat, depressed 
and wider at the base; rictal bristles small; nostrils concealed ; 
wing moderate, third quill almost equal to fourth ; tail narrow, 
graduated ; legs and feet small 
