402 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



257. Lanius erythronotus, Vigors. 



CoUuiio apud Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831 — Gould, Cent. Him. 

 Birds, pi. 12, f. 2.--BLYTH, Cat. 870-Horsf., Cat. 213 and 214— 

 Coll. jounotus, HoDGS. — Jerdon, Cat. 50 — L. caniceps, Blyth, 

 Cat. 871 — Mattiya latora, H. i.e. 'Earthy Shrike' in the South; 

 Kajala latora, H., in the North — Yerra beUinchi, Tel. 

 The Rufous-backed Shrike. 



Descr. Head above, nape, and upper part of the back, pure ashy ; 

 narrow frontal streak, continued through the eyes to the end of the 

 ear-coverts, black ; scapulars, lower back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts, ferruginous ; wings black ; edge of the wing, and a sr lall 

 spot near the base of the primaries, white ; tail, with the f >ur 

 central feathers, black, the outer feathers reddish- cinereous, ed ;'ed 

 and tipped paler or whitish ; beneath white, ferruginous on the 

 flanks and under tail-coverts; bill and legs black; irides cark 

 brown. 



Length 10 inches ; wing 3-| to | ; tail 4^ to 5 ; tarsus 1^. 



It will be seen, from the synonyms quoted above, that I do not 

 adopt Blyth's species caniceps, from Southern India, which appears 

 to me to be founded on a lather pale and abraded specimen. 

 The black frontal band appears to be slightly narrower, the grey 

 of the head is paler, and spreads over more of the back, and over 

 the eye-band ; and on the forehead it is almost whitish, and the 

 rufous color of the back is almost confined to the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts. I have killed specimens somewhat similar to this, and 

 others quite as rufous as Himalayan specimens, in the same part of 

 the country, and we know that the amount of rufous varies much 

 both in this and in L. nigriceps ; whether dependent on age or 

 otherwise, I cannot say. Horsfield, in his Catalogue, enumerates 

 Sykes's specimen as belonging to erythronotus. In Hutton's notes on 

 Kandahar, Blyth states that the specimens forwarded by Captain 

 Hutton resemble erythronotus in size, but caniceps in colouring ; 

 and Adams, in his Birds of Cashmere, gives L. caniceps and not 

 erythronotus. 



This Rufous-backed Shrike is found throughout the greater 

 part oi India, being common on the Malabar coast and the 



