196 Mr. C. Boden Kloss on Birds [Ibis, 



Sides of face like the crown, a little dusky in front of the 

 eye and on the ear-coverts (in one specimen only). Under 

 surface of the body gradually paling from the slate-grey 

 throat to white under tail-coverts. Under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries grey and whitish ; wing greyish-black below, the 

 inner webs of all except the first primary and some of 

 the secondaries variably white. 



Female. Differs from the male in being a trifle less of a 

 blue-grey above and in having the rump and upper tail- 

 coverts indistinctly tipped with whitish. The two tail- 

 feathers on each side of the middle pair have the outer 

 webs largely grey, and there are numerous obsolete bars 

 below on the inner webs (these are present in the males, 

 but barely perceptible). The secondaries and the primaries, 

 except the first three, are broadly edged with whitish, as are 

 the greater coverts. A whitish eyebrow is present, the 

 feathers below the eye are spotted and the ear-coverts 

 striped with whitish. The lores are dusky. 



The under surface is white, washed with greyish on the 

 breast and barred with dusky cross-lines which become 

 wider apart posteriorly ; they are absent on the terminal 

 half of the white under tail-coverts. 



A female from northern Siam obtained by Mr. K. G. 

 Gairdner differs in having the bill and feet brown, not 

 black ; there are marked black shaft-stripes on the crown, 

 the rump is faintly tinged with russet, and the lower breast, 

 abdomen, and tail-coverts are tinged with buff. It is slightly 

 larger (W. Ill ; Ta. 21), and perhaps, like so many birds of 

 this region, V. polioptera increases in size towards the north; 

 my birds are intermediate between Mr. Gairduer's specimen 

 and the types (wings 106 and 104 mm.). 



Gyldenstolpe has recorded as V. m. avensis a pair of 

 Cuckoo- Shrikes from Koh Lak and a male from northern 

 Siam (Kungl. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. Ivi. No. 2, p. 71) ; 

 from their dimensions (wings 109, 111, 109 mm.) they might 

 be examples of V. polioptera, and they have the large white 

 patches on the under side of the wing ; no other details are 



