ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 89 



One gets some specimens of this species, with no signs of 

 laonage, with not only the upper tail-coverts but the rump and 

 scapulars also light ferruginous, the whole back tinged with 

 this and a line or even band on the forehead blackish. These 

 birds might well be taken for some stage of nigriceps, but they 

 show no trace of the white spot at the base of the primaries, 

 which is well marked in the youngest nigriceps, even before 

 it leaves the nest, directly the wing feathers are fully developed. 

 Can these birds be hybrids between this species and nigriceps ? 



This species is very generally distributed in Assam, Cachar 

 and Sylhet. I shot it at inany places, and saw it wherever 

 I went in both these districts, and have it from N.-E, Cachar. 

 Also from the Garo and Khasi hills, Gauhati, Tezpore and 

 various localities in the Dibrugarh district, and Godwin-Aus- 

 ten includes it in his Dafla hill list. 



[My largest specimen, a male, shot in December, was :— 

 Length, 9-85 ; expanse, 12-0 ; tail, 4-80 ; wing, 4-05 ; tarsus, 

 1-10; bill from gape, 0-93; weight, l-65ozs. They are just 

 a« common in the Dibrugarh and Sibsagar districts as 

 L. nigriceps, and are found in the more open parts of the 

 country, roadsides where leading through forest, and even 

 along the river banks. On one occasion a bird of this species 

 flew into the verandah at dusk after an insect, alighted on a 

 canvas stretcher, then hopped on to a window, and would not 

 leave until I advanced towards it. They remain in the 

 district (Dibrugarh) from September to April. — J. R C. ] 



It occurs as a straggler in the northern portions of Tenas- 

 serim, and Blyth records it from Arakan, but I have no 

 knowledge of its occurring elsewhere in B. Burmah, and I have 

 never myself seen it from Arakan. 



259. — Lanius nigriceps, FrankL 



I did not meet with this species after crossing the Jhiri into 

 Manipur, until we reached the Kopura Thull, where it was 

 abundant. Then, again, we found it in the broad grass-grown 

 valley of the Limata, but these were the only places in which 

 I observed it in the Western hills. Throughout the Manipur 

 level it is common, as also almost everywhere in the Eastern 

 hills, as high up as Aimole and Matchi. 



The legs ^ and feet are blackish brown, hoary on soles and 

 back of tarsus; bill blackish horny, pale bluish on gape and 



12 



