HEMIPUS PICATUS. 



(THE LITTLE PIED SHRIKE.) 



Muscicapa picata, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 85; Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1842, xi. p. 458 ; Gray, 

 Gen. Birds, i. p. 263 (1845). 



Hemipus picatus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 305 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 154 (1849) ; 

 Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 123 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. 

 p. 126 ; Jerdon, B. of lnd. i. p. 413 (1862) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 437 ; Hume, 

 Nests and Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 178 (1873) ; id. Str. Feath. 1873, p. 435 ; Ball, ibid. 

 1874, p. 399; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 16 ; Hume, Str. F. 1875, p. 93 ; Bourdillon, ibid. 

 1876, p. 393; Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p.307 (1877); Hume, Str. Feath. 1878 (B. of Tenasserim), 

 p. 207. 



The Black-and-white Flycatcher, The Shrike-like Flycatcher of Indian authors ; The Black- 

 and-white Hemipus, Kelaart. 



Adult male and female. Length 5 - 2 to 5*4 inches ; wing 2 - 2 to 2 - 4 ; tail 2*2 to 2-3 ; tarsus 0"6 ; mid toe and claw 055 ; 

 bill to gape 0-65 to 0"75. 



Iris reddish brown, with a light mottled outer circle ; bill black ; legs and feet blackish, claws paler. 



Head, hind neck, back, wings, upper tail-coverts, and tail deep black, glossed with green on the head and back ; an 

 incomplete nuchal collar, a broad band across the rump, a bar on the wing formed by the tips of the greater 

 coverts, the edges of the longer tertials and of several of the secondaries, and the terminal portion of the 4 outer 

 rectrices white ; the white marking extends up most of the outer web of the lateral tail-feather and is confined to 

 a small spot at the tip of the 4th ; chin, lower part of cheeks, sides of neck, belly, under tail- and under wing-coverts 

 whitish, passing into the reddish ashy of the lower throat, breast, and flanks. 



Obs. The northern form of this little Shrike (H. capitalis of M'Clelland) is united with the present bird by Mr. Hume, 

 but kept distinct by Mr. Sharpe, on account of its brownish back. The former contends (Str. Feath. 1873, p. 475) 

 that the brown birds are females. I have not observed this feature in Ceylon examples, the females being just as 

 black as the males ; and Ceylonese birds are identical with examples which I have examined from South India and 

 Mahabaleshwar, as regards size, colour of upper and under surface, and distribution of white marking. A male 

 from Darjiling, in the British Museum, is similar to the Mahabaleshwar bird, but has the tail more deeply tipped 

 with white ; but several others from the former locality, which may, perhaps, be males, have the upper surface, 

 wings, and wing-coverts brown. The latest testimony, however, with regard to the northern race, and which is 

 contained in Mr. Hume's admirable paper on the birds of Tenasserim, shows that Assam, Sikkim, and Kumaon 

 specimens of both sexes have brown backs, and that out of ten males from Darjiling, one only has the back black. 

 Others, again, from various localities along the Himalayas have the back black ; and this, I think, goes to prove 

 that there are two different races — the southern with black head and back, and the northern with black head and 

 brown back, both of which may occur, as Mr. Hume suggests, in the Himalayan districts. The latter seems to be 

 the larger, measuring in total length from 5-35 to 5-45, and in the wing from 2-3 to 2-4. The Mahabaleshwar 

 example above noticed measures — wing 2-3 inches, tail 2-3, tarsus 0-45, bill to gape 0-7. 



Hemipus obscurus, Horsf., from Java, is not distantly related to our bird ; it has the back and wings green-black, no 

 bar or white marking on the wing ; the upper tail-coverts white, without the transverse bar of black in the 

 centre of the white patch ; tail black, the lateral feathers with an outer and an inner white edge ; beneath 

 white ; chest washed with grey. 



Distribution. — This little Shrike is dispersed throughout the forests and heavy jungles of the island, but 

 is generally more numerous in the Kandyan Province, even at high altitudes, and in the southern coffee- 

 districts than in the low country. Although scarce at Horton Plains, it is a common bird about Nuwara 

 Elliya, Kandapolla, and in the main range, and is likewise met with in all the intermediate coffee-districts. 

 In the timber-forests and also in the cultivated country near the sea-board of the south-west it is tolerably 

 plentiful ; and the same may be said of the jungles in the eastern portion of the island, and of the forest- 



