LALAGE. 181 



Female. Forehead and front of crown, feathers round the eye, cheeks, 

 sides of the neck, chin and throat whitish ; rest of head, neck, scapulars and 

 back earthy brown ; lores dark brown ; rump and upper tail coverts light 

 brown, very much paler than the back ; wings and wing coverts blackish brown, 

 paler on the edges ; the primaries with an oblique mark of yellowish white, 

 and the secondaries with a yellow patch at their bases ; under wing coverts 

 and axillaries pale yellow ; breast, belly, vent and under tail coverts pale buffy 

 brown ; tail feathers dark brown, the four outer pairs very broadly tipped 

 with yellowish white, and the shafts of all hair brown. The male is similar, 

 but the white of the head and throat is pure, the head and back dark ashy 

 brown ; wing spot white, that on the secondaries tinged with brown, and the 

 lores very dark brown. 



Bill and legs black ; irides hazel. 



Length. 8 inches ; wing 3*5 ; tail 3*7 ; tarsus 0*55 ; bill from gape 0*75. 



Hab. British Burma, in the Pegu Division, and in the extreme south of 

 Tenasserim, where Davison met with it. 



Gen. Lalage. Boie. 



Shrike-like birds of soft plumage ; feathers of the lower back and rump 

 rather stiff ; bill stout and moderately hooked ; rictal bristles almost wanting ; 

 wings longer than the tail ; under tail coverts long. 



202. Lalage Sykesi, Strickl. Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. i., xiii. p. 36; 

 Legge, Birds, Ceylon, p. 369; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. iv. p. 89. Volvo- 

 civora sykesi, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 414, No. 268; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 

 p. 179; Bl. B. Burnt., p. 123; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 91. Campophaga 

 sykesi, Oates, B. Br. Burm. i. p. 234. The BLACK-HEADED CUCKOO-SHRIKE 



Head, neck, upper back, chin, throat and upper breast black ; lower 

 breast and abdomen pale grey, gradually passing to white on the vent and 

 lower tail coverts ; lower back, scapulars, lesser wing coverts, rump and upper 

 tail coverts grey, the latter margined paler ; median wing coverts black, tipped 

 and broadly margined for their terminal half on the outer webs with grey ; 

 greater wing coverts black, narrowly margined greyish ; primaries and 

 secondaries black, the primaries with a narrow white margin on their 

 outer webs and a large white patch on their inner webs, the secondaries rather 

 broadly margined and tipped with white ; tail with the central feathers grey, 

 the rest black, broadly tipped with white. 



The female has the head and the upper plumage grey, paler on the rump 

 and upper tail coverts, the latter barred with dusky ; cheeks, sides of the neck 

 and the whole of the lower plumage whitish or albescent, closely and narrowly 

 barred transversely with black, the bars becoming obsolete on the abdomen; vent 

 and under tail coverts white ; quills and wing coverts dark brown, each feather 

 margined with greyish white ; ear coverts greyish, mottled with brown ; the 

 feathers white shafted ; tail with the central pair of feathers grey, narrowly 

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