239 



LITTLE GREY-HEADED BUSH-SHRIKE. 



Malaconotus superdlioms^ SWAINS. 



Size of a sparrow. Head, ears, and neck above cinereous; 

 a white stripe above and behind the eye ; back, wings, and 

 tail olive with whitish spots ; under parts yellow. 



INNUMERABLE instances occur wherein the variation 

 of the colour of birds, generally the best indication 

 of species, is nevertheless insufficient to characterize 

 them. The Drongo-Shrikes, of which nearly fifteen 

 species are known, are all clothed in a uniform black 

 plumage ; while the gulls and the terns are uni- 

 formly white, with light grey on their back and 

 wings. In the present group, however, the only 

 instance of two species being clothed almost precisely 

 in the same colours is in the bird before us and 

 the Malaconotus olivaceus just described. Except- 

 ing that this has white eye-brows, which the other 

 lias not, the colours in both are precisely the same ; 

 vet one is no larger than a sparrow, while the other 

 exceeds the size of a thrush. The anatomist, how- 

 ever, will readily detect a difference much more im- 

 portant ; for while the first joint of the outer toe is 

 united to the middle one in M. olivaceus, this joint 

 is perfectly free in M. superciliosus. 



To enter upon a detailed account of the plumage 

 of this bird is quite unnecessary, inasmuch as it 



