LANIUS CANICEPS. 



(THE RUFOUS-RUMPED SHRIKE.) 



Lanius caniceps, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 302 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 151 (1849); 



Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 164 (1854); Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1877, 



p. 400. 

 Lanius tephronotus (Vig.), Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 124 (1852). 

 Lanius erythronotus (Vig.), Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 130 ; Jerdon 



(in pt.), B. of Ind. i. p. 402 (1862); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 436 ; Legge, Str. Feath. 



1876, p. 243. 

 Collyrio caniceps (BL), Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. p. 169 (1873). 

 Lanius affinis, Legge, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 243. 

 Pale Rufous-backed Shrike of some ; Butcher-bird, Europeans in north of Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length 9-0 to 9-2 inches ; wing 3-55 to 3-65 ; tail 4-5 ; tarsus 1-05 ; mid toe and claw 0-95 ; hind toe 

 and claw - 75 ; bill to gape 0-9. 



Adult female. Length 8-7 to 8-9 ; wing 3-45 to 3-6 ; tail 4-1 to 4-3. 



L'is hazel-brown ; bill black ; legs and feet blackish brown. 



A broad facial band encompassing the eye, and passing from below the ear-coverts to the nostril and across the 

 forehead, where it narrows, wings, and three central pairs of tail-feathers black ; head, back and sides of neck, 

 back, and scapulars pale bluish grey, with a whitish edging at the frontal band and above the eye ; edge of the 

 wing and a band at the base of the primaries from the 5th to the 10th quill, under wing, throat, fore neck, and 

 centre of breast white ; rump, upper tail-coverts, and flanks rufous ; under tail-coverts and terminal portion of 

 the longer scapulars rufescent, or paler than the rump. 



In abraded plumage the head and edges of the back-feathers become whitish ; and I observe that when the plumage is 

 new the longer scapulars are more rufous than when it is abraded, as this colour is chiefly confined to the external 

 portion of the webs. 



Female. Has the eye-stripe or band less black than the male, and the frontal bar narrower. 



Young. (Nestling shot by Mr. Holdsworth, 8th February, 1869.) Above pale sandy fulvous, darkening gradually 

 into rufous on the rump, longer scapular-feathers, and upper tail-coverts ; on the hind neck a slight tinge of 

 greyish ; all the feathers barred with wavy marks of dark brown ; lesser wing-coverts rufescent, broadly barred 

 with blackish brown ; inner webs of the tertials rufous, their external margins and tips of the same colour ; four 

 central tail-feathers brown, the remainder and the tips of the first-named rufous tinged with brown ; eye-band 

 blackish brown, not extending to the forehead ; beneath whitish, tinged with rufescent strongly on the flanks and 

 under tail-coverts. 



06s. This fine Shrike is the southern representative of Lanius erythronotus, the Rufous-backed Shrike, found in the 

 Deccan, Central and Northern India. Specimens from Malabar and from the Godaveri-river district have just 

 as little rufous on the scapulars and lower back as our birds ; in fact a Malabar example in the national collection 

 has less rufous on these parts than some Ceylonese specimens. Two birds from the districts named measure 

 3'5 and 3-75 inches in the wing, and two from the Palanis, obtained by Mr. Fairbank, 3-3. At the time I 

 wrote my note on this species (' Stray Feathers,' 1876) I had only specimens of L. erythronotus in my collection, 

 and was unacquainted with the true L. caniceps, and hence my remark as to our bird perhaps being a local race 

 of the former. The Rufous-backed Shrike has the back as far up as the interscapulary region, and nearly all the 

 scapular tuft, rufous ; and in all specimens I have examined there is an absence of the pale margin at the posterior 

 edge of the frontal band ; the secondaries and tertials are more broadly edged with fulvous than in L. caniceps. 

 Two examples from Behar measure 3 - 5 and 3"4 inches in the wing, and two from Futteghur 3-5 and 3 - 55 

 respectively. 



