TEPHRODORNIS PONDICERIANUS. 



(THE COMMON WOOD-SHRIKE.) 



Muscicapa pondiceriana, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 939 (1788). 



Tephrodornis superciliosus, Jerdon, Cat. B. 8. India, Madr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 237. 



Tephrodornis pondiceriana, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1840, xv. p. 305 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 



p. 153 (1849) ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 1G9 (1854) ; Jerdon, B. of 



Ind. i. p. 410 (1S62); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 437; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. 



p. 176 (1873) ; id. Str. Feath. 1873, p. 177 ; Adam, t. c. p. 370 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, 



p. 399; Hume, ibid. 1875, p. 92; Legge, ibid. 1870, p. 243 ; Hume, t.c. p. 458. 

 Tephrodornis affinis, Blyth, J.A. S. B. 1847, xvi. p. 473; id. Cat. B.Mus. A. S. B. p. 153(1849); 



Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 124 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854,xiii.p. 131 ; 



Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 305; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 437; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 10. 

 Tephrodornis pondicerianus, Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 275. 

 Gobe-mouche de Pondichery, Sonnerat ; The Keroula Shrike, Latham ; Butcher-bird, Kelaart ; 



The Bush-Shrike in India. 

 Keroula, Hind.; Chudukka, Beng. ; Via pitta, lit. "Whistling-bird," Tel. 



Adult male and female. Length 5'9 to 6 - 4 inches ; wing 3 - 2 to 3'5 ; tail 2-4 to 2 - 5 ; tarsus 0*7 to OS ; mid toe and 

 claw 0-05 : bill to gape 0-95 to 1-05. 



Iris pale olive or yellowish olive, sometimes with the inner half bright yellow, at others with a green inner ring ; bill 

 with the upper mandible and terminal half of the lower dark brown, base beneath light fleshy ; legs and feet dusky 

 slate-blue or bluish slate, claws blackish. 



Above slaty grey in specimens from the hills and Western Province, duskier or ashy brown in those from the northern 

 parts of the island ; lores, upper part of cheek, and the ear-coverts blackish brown ; a whitish supercilium, variable 

 in size and in length, but always more or less well defined ; beneath the brown cheek-patch a whitish stripe ; wings 

 brown, the tertials pale-edged ; tips of the longer rump-feathers and the shorter upper tail-coverts white, forming a 

 bar across the rump, which is variable in width and usually broadest in birds which are most slaty in hue ; longer 

 upper tail-coverts black, four central pairs of rectrices blackish brown, darkening to black at the base; two outer 

 pairs white with dark bases, and the tips marked as follows : — a brown stripe near the tip of the external web of 

 the outermost, the same at the tip of the next, with an adjacent spot often across the inner web : in some specimens, 

 probably not very old, this latter does not exist, the streaks on the outer webs are very small, and the outer web 

 of the 3rd feather has a white streak at the centre. 



Throat, lower breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white ; the sides of the throat more or less washed with brownish, 

 in the form of streaks, and the chest and upper part of the breast pale cinereous ashy ; thighs brownish. 



Obs. As already remarked, the tints in the plumage of this species vary. I have found that the most slaty-coloured 

 specimens come from the Western Province and the Nuwara-Elliya district : a Haputale and a Dumbara specimen 

 an- both brownish, nearly as much so as a Trincomalie and an Aripu example. Birds from the Galle district 

 do not seem to be as slaty as those from Colombo. It must be also observed that when newly acquired, the 

 feathers are most bluish ; on becoming abraded, they lose the slaty tint and present an ashy appearance. 



Young. Bill lighter than the adult, as a rule ; iris olive. 



In nestling plumage pale rufous-brown above, the forehead and head very conspicuously spotted with white, the back less 

 so ; greater wing-coverts and tertials fulvous, with a dark crescentic line and white tips ; the three outer rectrices 

 are white and more marked at the tips ; the dark stripe from the base of the lower mandible is more defined and 

 the supercilium absent, although the white spots sometimes take the form of a stripe. 



In the next stage the upper surface is darker and less spotted ; there is a trace of a supercilium beyond the eye ; in 

 some the upper tail-coverts are partially white; the third rectrix from the exterior is now blackish brown, as in 

 the adult, and all are tipped with white. Under surface much as in the adult ; the chest, perhaps, a little darker. 



