IAXIUS. 469 



Coloration. Forehead and a well-defined supercilium white, 

 more or less pure according to age ; upper plumage and lesser 

 wing-coverts reddish brown, puffer and brighter red on the crown, 

 nape, and sides of the neck ; median and greater coverts and quills 

 dark brown' margined with rufous ; tail reddish brown with pale 

 tips ; cheeks, chin, and throat white ; remainder of lower plumage 

 fulvous. 



Perfect adults have no bars on either the upper or the lower 

 plumage, but such unbarred birds are comparatively rare ; the 

 majority have traces of bars on the breast and flanks. Nestlings 

 are profusely barred with dark brown on every portion of the 

 plumage and the eye-baud is brown. It takes two or more years 

 for this bird to attain mature plumage. 



The upper mandible in front of the nostrils and the tip of the 

 lower dark horn ; remainder of the bill pale bluish ; mouth flesh - 

 colour ; iris dark brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs bluish brown ; 

 claws black. 



Length about 7*5; tail 3-5; wing 3'4; tarsus 1: bill from 

 gape -9. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the whole of the Empire except 

 that portion lying to the west of a line roughly drawn from the 

 Sutlej valley to Mount Abu ; Ceylon ; the Andamans. 



Although a winter visitor to India, there is evidence to show 

 that this Shrike in some cases remains in portions of the Empire 

 throughout the year. There are numerous specimens in the Hume 

 Collection killed in the Andamans throughout the summer months. 

 There is also in the British Museum a young bird killed at 

 Ahmednagar in the Bombay Presidency on the 19th August which 

 looks as if it had been bred in India. The nest of this species has 

 not yet been discovered within our limits, but it may not im- 

 probably be found on the higher ranges of the Himalayas, if not 

 in some portions of the plains. 



In winter this Shrike is also found in Cochin China and Siam, 

 the Malay peninsula and Southern China. In summer it is spread 

 over Tibet, Mongolia, and portions of Siberia. 



L. superciliosus is closely allied to the present species, but it has 

 the forehead and supercilium white, very plainly defined from the 

 other parts of the head, and the whole upper plumage a rich 

 chestnut. Hume is of opinion that this species is merely a stage 

 of L. cristatus, but it appears to me to be a very distinct species 

 confined to Japan, China, and the Malay peninsula and never 

 found even in Burma. 



482. Lanius lucionensis. The Philippine Shrike. 



Lanius lucionensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 135 (1766) ; Wald. Ibis, 

 1867, p. 215 ; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 199 ; Wald. Trans. Z. S. ix, p. 171, 

 pi. xxix, fig. 1; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi, p. 205; Legye, Birds 

 Ceyl. p. 378, note ; Hume, Cat. no. 261 bis ; Gates, B. B. i, p. 251 ; 

 Gadow, Cat. B. M. viii, p. 274. 



