258 CASSIN'S NEW SPECIES OF THE GENERA MELANERPES AND LANIUS. 



Dimensions. — Total length of skin from tip of bill to end of tail about 8| inches, 

 wing 4|, tail 4J inches. 



Colors. — Adult. Bill pale horn color. Head above, back and rump pale cinere- 

 ous, scapulars white and conspicuous, wings with a large patch of white on the 

 primaries and with the secondaries broadly tipped with white. 



A stripe of black through the eye, very narrow on the nares, but wider behind the 

 eye. Entire inferior surface of the body, white, with a pale rosy tinge, most ob- 

 servable on the breast. 



Tail with the two external feathers on each side, white, each with a narrow longi- 

 tudinal line of black on the shaft, slightly widening into both webs ; other tail feathers 

 black, tipped with white, except the two in the centre, which are pure black. Tarsi, 

 feet and claws pale brownish. 



Hab. — Eastern Africa. 



Ohs. — This fine species, of which there is one specimen only in the Rivoli col- 

 lection, may be distinguished readily from all others known to me by its very pale 

 horn colored bill and the pale rosy tinge of the under parts of the body. The 

 plumage above is of a paler cinereous than in L. excuhiloi-, and it is without the 

 white patch in the middle of the secondaries which is so distinct in that species. The 

 bird at present described is more nearly related to L. meridionalis, but is smaller and 

 its colors are much paler. 



3. Lanius fallens, Cassin. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philada., v. p. 245 (Aug., 1851.) 



Plate 23, fig. 2. 

 L. supra pallide cinereus, uropygio corporeque subtus albis, alis nigris albo maculatis. 



Form. — Bill rather weak, wings and tail rather long, but with the general form 

 of typical Lanius. 



Dimoisions. — Total length of skin from tip of bill to end of tail about 8 inches, 

 wing 4, tail 4J inches. 



Colors. — (Specimens not in mature plumage.) Rump and entire under surface 

 pure white. Head above and back pale cinereous, wings black, Avith a large patch 

 of white on the middle of the primaries, and with the secondaries edged and broadly 

 tipped with white. 



Tail with the two external feathers on each side white, with the shafts blacli, others 

 black with white tips, very narrow on the four central feathers. 



A black stripe through the eye, above which is a stripe of white. 



Bill and tarsi dark horn color. 



Hah. — Fazogloa, Eastern Africa. 



Obs. — This species very considerably resembles the preceding, but differs in having 

 the rump white and the bill shorter and weaker, and it appears to be, so far as pre- 

 served specimens can be relied on, a smaller and more slender bird. Two specimens 

 are in the Rivoli collection, neither of which are in mature plumage. 



