Birds of Celebes: Laniidae. 4Qg 



The Sarasins' example from North Celebes is dated 13. April, 1894; another 

 from there in the Dresden Museum, 21. Febr., 1894. In Palawan Mr. John 

 Whitehead (j 1) remarks that it is "a winter visitor arriving about 25'*' Sept."; 

 similarly in West Borneo (Mt. Dulit) Mr. Hose (40) writes that it is "a monsoon 

 visitor, and is found all through the low country, where it is by no means rare". 

 Prof. Weber obtained a specimen even in Flores (47), but we have come 

 across no notice of its occurrence in Java, though Mr. Vorderman (51) has 

 recorded it from Noordwachter Island, and his (44) specimen is the only one 

 we have seen recorded from Sumatra. Mr. Hume notices several points where 

 it has been killed in the Western Malay Peninsula, one of its winter quarters, 

 according to Mr. Gates; but in Tenasserim Hume and Davison considered 

 it a rare straggler to the southermost extremity only of the province. In 

 Camorta, Nicobars, Davison shot one specimen, but in the Andamans it has 

 been killed from December to October (14) and Hume remarks that it appears 

 to be a permanent resident in those islands , though we should think with 

 Legge that the birds which remain there during the breeding season are im- 

 mature. Ceylon and South India seem to be reached only by casual wanderers ; 

 there seems to be no reason to doubt the correctness of Mr. Hume's deter- 

 mination of the tAvo specimens known, one from each locality, though the author 

 himself suggests the possibility of their belonging to a distinct race. 



To recapitulate, the bird is known as a summer visitor to Corea, it passes 

 by Pekin on migration, it seems, however, to breed in Central China further 

 south; South China and Formosa it passes through in migration and some indi- 

 viduals pass the winter there; three specimens taken at sea — one off Shang- 

 hai, one in the S. China Sea and the third off Luzon — are mentioned; 

 examples from the Philippines show that it is a plentiful winter visitor there, 

 and observers in Palawan and W. Borneo note its arrival in September or 

 with the monsoon, i. e. the N. E. trades, which begin to be felt in the East 

 Indies north of the equator about September. Celebes, Halmahera and F^lores 

 on the east, and Tenasserim, Ceylon and South India on the west seem to mark 

 the limits of its migration. Between Flores and Sumatra it seems to be very 

 rare, but in Malacca and the Andamans it is sufficiently common again. The 

 main autumn route of the species from S. China and Formosa is, therefore, 

 across the China Sea to the Philippines and Borneo, as Swinhoe believed; at 

 the same time it looks as if a certain number of individuals pursues another 

 way into and over Siam to Malacca and the Andamans. The scarcity or absence 

 of this species in Java and Sumatra is noteworthy, but Borneo would intercept 

 migrants from the north. 



The migration of Lanius tigrinus affords an instructive contrast to that of 

 L. lucionensis. The northern range of the two species is very similar, but, as 

 has been shown, L. tigrinus is not yet known from Formosa and the Philippines 

 where L. lucionensis amves in plenty in the autumn, but it is fairly common in 



Meyer & Wigleswor th, Birds of Celebes (Nov. .5iii, 1S97). 52 



