90' LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



base of lower mandible ; irides deep brown. There are several 

 points in regard to this very variable species that I have not 

 hitherto seen noticed. 



In the first place the young (and I have them from nestlings 

 quite unable to fly) never exhibit those fine crescentic mark- 

 ings on the lower surface so characteristic of many of our 

 other Shrikes. The entire lower surface of the youngest bird 

 (quills only half developed, tail sprouting) is white, on the 

 chin, throat and abdomen faintly, elsewhere decidedly, tinged 

 with fulvous. In such a bird the forehead, crown, occiput 

 and nape are buffy fulvous, the brownish grey bases of the 

 feathers showing through ; the interscapular region dull 

 ferruginous buff, the feathers with one or two very fine wavy, 

 somewhat indistinct, transverse grey brown bars ; scapulars, 

 lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts warm buff on the 

 former, passing to ferruginous buff on the latter; wings black ; 

 coverts and tertiaries broadly margined with ferruginous ; 

 tail, what is seen of it, brown, dark on the central two pairs, 

 fading on the lateral ones, tipped and margined with rufescent 

 buff. When the bird is fully fledged and has left the nest, the 

 wings have become browner ; the central tail-feathers are only a 

 moderately dark brown, while the lateral ones are a greyish rufes- 

 cent. The fine bars on the interscapular region are still 

 there ; the white wing spot, which shows the moment the quills 

 develop, is well marked ; the entire head is grey, with a greater 

 or less admixture of black, and more or less of the back is also 



But now it has to be remarked that the grey on oiigriceps 

 of, say, Mogulserai and Mirzapoor, young or adult, is very 

 different from the grey of Manipur or Cachar birds. In the for- 

 mer it is the blue grey of erythronotus, in the latter the brown 

 grey of tephronotus. 



Now, in the progress towards maturity, this grey gets swal- 

 lowed up, from above by the black, from below by the 

 rufous, and in the perfect old adult the black of the head 

 and nape descends on to the upper back a little and there meets 

 the bright rufous of the rest of the back ; when somewhat less 

 adult there is more or less grey, or rufous, tinged grey, between 

 the black (which has not come quite so far down) and the 

 rufous. 



But the extension of the rufous and black are not syn- 

 chronous nor according to any fixed plan. 



For instance, I have a bird just out of the nest with the lines 

 still conspicuous on the back, with head almost entirely black, 

 only a little grey on the nape and extreme upper back, and 



