LALAGE ST.KESL 



(THE BLACK-HEADED CUCKOO-SHRIKE.) 



Ceblepyris canus, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 87. 



Lalage sykesi, Strickl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1844, xiii. p. 36 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. 



Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 175 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 89 (1879). 

 Campephaga syJcesii, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 283 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 191 (1849) ; 



Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 128 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 368. 

 Volvocivora syJcesii, Bp. Consp. i. p. 356 ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 414 (1862); Hume, Nests 



and Eggs, i. p. 179 (1873) ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 399, et 1875, p. 291 ; Butler, 



ibid. 1875, p. 464 ; Fairbank, ibid. 1876, p. 256, et 1877, p. 400 ; Butler, ibid. 1877, 



p. 220. 

 Lesser Caterpillar-catcher, of some. 

 Jungli Jcasya, Hind. ; Chuma akiorayi, lit. " Lesser File-bird," Telugu. 



Adult male. Length 7'3 to 775 inches ; wing 3-8 to 4-0 ; tail 3-0 ; tarsus 0-8 ; middle toe and claw 0-75 to 0-8 ; bill 

 to gape 0-85. 



Iris brownish red ; bill black ; legs and feet black, with slaty edges to the scales of the tarsi ; claws black. 



Head, back, and sides of neck, chin, throat, and fore neck glossy black, abruptly divided from the pale grey of the 

 chest and flanks, and blending into the slate-grey of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts, on 

 which latter this colour is palest ; wings and tail black, the 1st primary wholly so, the remainder with the basal 

 portion of their inner webs white ; secondaries and greater coverts margined with the grey of the back ; the three 

 outer pairs of tail-feathers white at the tips ; the next pair have their extreme tips slaty white, the two central ones 

 slaty, darkening into blackish near the tips ; lower parts white, blending into the grey of the flanks and chest ; 

 under wing-coverts whitish, washed with slaty ; thighs slaty. 



Adult female. Shorter in the wing, which usually measures 3 - 7 inches. 



Iris brown ; bill blackish, light at the gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet brownish slate. 



Above dusky bluish grey, wanting the black head ; a light line above the brownish lores ; ear-coverts striped with 

 white ; rump barred with white ; wings brownish black, with the edgings whitish ; the central rectrices without 

 the black patch. Beneath white, barred, except on the belly and lower tail-coverts, with blackish brown ; thighs 

 slaty, barred with dark grey. 



Young. Bill not so black as in the adult female. Upper surface brownish slate, the feathers with a blackish subterminal 

 bar and white tip. Tertials very broadly edged with white, and the quills and tail-feathers all ripped white. 

 Beneath barred as the female. 



Male in second stage very similar to the adult female. The lores and ear-coverts black, and the head generally mingled 

 with black feathers ; a bluish wash over the throat and chest; the bars on the flanks and lower breast not so bold 

 as in the adult female. The loral spot is blacker than adults of the other sex. An example in this stage before 

 me has also the ground-colour of the throat pervaded with greyish, but nevertheless barred quite up to the chin ; 

 there are a few black feathers on the crown, some of which are new, while others are old and appear to be changing 

 from the grey to the black colour. 



Obs. Blyth has stated that the adult female has a black head and neck, as in the male. Mr. Holdsworth's experience 

 of the plumage of this sex accords with my own ; and I cannot come to any other conclusion but that Blyth's 

 specimens from which he drew this inference were wrongly sexed. Mr. Adam, I observe, speaks of an immature 

 female, shot at Sambhur, having some of the head-feathers black, and the under surface, from the throat to the 

 abdomen, crossed with wavy lines ; this is the precise character of the change of plumage in the young male. 



Ceylonese specimens of this bird compare well with Indian. The latter are, perhaps, a trifle larger. Two examples 



3b 



