498 



The young have the upper plumage rufous barred with dark 

 brown, and the lower plumage whitish, barred on the throat, 

 breast, under tail-coverts, and axillaries with blackish. The young, 

 however, vary extremely, and no description will cover all the 

 changes they undergo from the nestling stage to the adult. 



Bill, legs, and feet black ; iris crimson-lake, tinged with brown 

 in the young (Hume). 



Length about 12 ; tail 5*5 ; wing 6'2 ; tarsus '95 ; bill from 

 gape 1*25. 



Distribution. The Andaman Islands. 



Other species of Graucalus are G. rex-pmeti from China, with 

 the under wing-coverts buff-coloured; and G. sumatrensis from 

 Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, smaller than G. macii, with an 

 extremely large bill, and no black on the face of the male. 



Subfamily ARTAMIN^E. 



The Artamince, or Swallow-Shrikes, are characterized by wings of 

 great length, which enable them to spend a considerable portion of 

 their time in the air. They catch their insect-food entirely on the 

 wing, either by darting upon it from a fixed perch, or by flying 

 about after the fashion of Swallows. 



In these birds the bill is conical, slightly curved and pointed, and 

 the tip is neither hooked nor notched. The first primary is very 

 minute, and the second very large, reaching quite to the tip of the 

 wing. The tail is square and short. The tarsus is weak. The 

 plumage is firm, and the colours plain. The sexes are alike. 



The true Artamince are confined to the Indian and Australian 

 regions. 



Genus ARTAMUS, Vieill., 1816. 



The characters of Artamus are the same as those of the sub- 

 family. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Rump of the same colour as the back A. fnscus, p. 498. 



b. Rump white, different to the back A. leucogaster, p. 499. 



512. Artamus fnscus. The Ashy Swallow-Shrike. 



Artamus fuscus, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xvii, p. 297 (1817) j 

 Blyth, Cat. p. 199; Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 161; Jerd. B. I. \, 

 p. 441 ; Hume) N. $ JE. p. 194 ; Sharpe in Rowley's Orn. Misc. in, 

 p. 191 ; Leffffe, Birds Ceyl. p. 666 ; Hume, Cat. no. 287 ; Oates, 

 B. B. i, p. 396 ; Davison, S. F. x, p. 368 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 

 p. 157 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 103 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. 

 i. p. 350 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii,p. 11*. 



* Mr. Sharpe has kindly allowed me to see the proof-sheets of the ] 3th vol. of 

 the ' Catalogue,' about to be published. 



