202 LANIID/E. 



Hal. Eastern Himalayas, from Nepaul to Bhootan. It is also recorded 

 from Sikkim and the Khasia hills. 



Sub-Family. LANIINvE. TRUE SHRIKES. 



Bill stout, strong, deep, laterally slightly compressed ; culmen bent, and 

 fending in a hook with a well-developed notch ; nostrils partially covered with 

 feathers and bristles and non-operculated ; tail graduated or square; wings 

 moderate, the first primary variable in length ; the third, fourth (fifth) 

 primaries the longest ; tarsus short and stout. Birds of sombre and lax 

 plumage, which is either black, grey, rufous or white, never red, green or 

 blue ; found throughout the Palaearctic, Indian and African regions. They 

 feed on insects and small birds, pouncing on their prey from their perch, and 

 invariably returning with their victim to the same spot to feed. The young 

 are barred across. 



Gen. LANIUS. Lin. 

 General characters the same as those of the sub-family. 



698. LaniUS fallax, Finsch, Trans. Z. S. vii. 1872, p. 249, pi. xxv. ; 

 Gadow, Cat. B, Br. Mus. viii. p. 240. Lanius pallidirostris, Cass., Pr. As. 

 Soc. Phil. 1851, p. 244; Sharpe, Cat. Afr. B. p. 51 ; Heugl., Orn.N. O.A/r. 

 p. 482. Lanius aucheri, Bp. Rev. et. Mag. Zool., 1853, p. 433 ; Sivinhoe, B. 

 Southern Afgh., Ibis, 1884, p. 163; Murray, Zool. Beloochistan and S. A/gh. 

 p. 52. The PALE GREY SHRIKE. 



Head and upper parts pale grey ; a well-marked white superciliary stripe, 

 extending to behind the ear coverts and joining the white of the sides of the 

 neck; rictal bristles and a broad streak through the eye enveloping the 

 ear coverts black ; basal half of both the inner and outer webs of the 

 primaries white, forming abroad speculum, the terminal half black ; secondaries 

 black, margined at the tips and bordered on the terminal half of the outer as 

 well as the basal half of the inner webs with white ; tail black, the two central 

 pairs of feathers narrowly tipped with white ; the outermost feathers white on 

 their outer webs, black shafted and blackish at the base, the white decreasing 

 m extent towards the central feathers; under wing coverts dull white, tinged 

 with greyish ; a spot of greyish on the edge of the wing ; sides of the breast 

 and abdomen also tinged with greyish. Bill and feet horny. 



The young bird Dr. Gadow describes as " much paler than the adult, and 

 tinged above with pale tawny colour ; under parts dull white ; loral and frontal 

 region dull white instead of blackish ; ear coverts, quills and tail feathers brown 

 instead of black; all the wing coverts are brown, and broadly edged with dull 

 white ; bill and feet pale horny yellow." (Gadoiv.) 



Length. 9 to 9-4 inches; wing 4-1 to 4-25; tail 4-1 to 4-25; tarsus 

 1*15 to P2 ; culmen 0*75 to ergo. 



