Family, ARTAMID^. SWALLOW SHRIKES. 



Bill moderate, wide at base, deep and slightly curved ; commissure slightly 

 curved ; nostrils basal, with a minute tuft of bristles at their base ; tarsus short 

 and strong; claws well curved, acute; wings long; 1st quill minute, 2nd 

 longest; tail short. (Jerd.) Plumage grey. They are called Swallow 

 Shrikes, owing to their feeding like the swallows in the air. 



Gen. ArtamuS Vieill. 

 Characters those of the Family. 



165a. Artamus fuscus, Vieill., Nouv. Diet, dllist* Nat. xvii. 



p. 297 ; Jerd t , B. Ind. i. p. 441, No. 287 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. 

 p. 194 ; Blyth, B. Burnt, p. 127 ; Hume, Sir. F. iii. p. 102 ; Armstrong, Sir. 

 F. iv. p. 321 ; Dav. et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. ioi ; Cripps, Sir. F. vii. p. 273 ; 

 Sharpe in Rowley s Orn. Misc. iii. p. 191 ; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 666 ; Hume, 

 Sir. F. viii. p. 92 ; Oates, Str. F. x. p. 203 ; id., B. Br. Burm. i. p. 396. 

 The ASHY SWALLOW SHRIKE. 



Lores black; head and neck ashy grey, also the back, scapulars, rump and 

 shorter upper tail coverts, but these with a rufescent or vinous tinge ; longer 

 upper tail coverts white ; tail dark grey, tipped with whitish ; wings and their 

 coverts deep grey ; quills narrowly margined with white near the tips and on 

 portions of the inner webs ; breast, abdomen, under wing and under tail coverts 

 pale purplish brown, the latter finely barred with ashy. Bill pale blue, darker 

 at the tip ; legs slaty ; irides dark brown. 



Length. 7 to 7*3 inches; wing 5-2; tail 2'5 ; tarsus 0^65; bill from gape 

 0-9S. 



The young are barred above, the quills are broadly margined with whitish, 

 and the under wing coverts tipped with rufous. 



Hal. Throughout nearly the whole of the moist regions in India and 

 Ceylon. Jerdon says it is more abundant in the wooded districts, especially 

 where palm trees abound, more particularly the Palmyra palm. He found 

 them most abundant in the Carnatic, the Malabar Coast, the Northern Circars 

 and Bengal ; rare in the Deccan and Central India. Occurs also at Darjee- 

 ling, spread throughout Assam, British Burmah and Ceylon. It has been 

 found at Arracan, Tenasserim and Pegu in large flocks- The nests are built 

 on palm trees, and are made of grass, twigs and fibres. Eggs, 4 in number, 

 whitish, marked at the larger end with yellowish brown and lilac. 



Artamus leucorhynchus, a species with the rump and lower surface of 

 the body white and the back and wings chocolate brown, is found in the 

 Andamans. 



VOL. I., p. 157- 



