300 Notices and Descriptions of various New [No. 172. 



but the parties are met with here and there, sometimes at long inter- 

 vals through a tract of favourable country ; but wherever they are seen, a 

 number of specimens may be procured with the greatest facility. 



Laniadce. Of the true Shrikes (Lanius), the following Indian species 

 may be enumerated. 



1. L. lahtora, Sykes ; L. excubitor, var. C, Latham : Doodea laktora 

 (< Milky Shrike'), Hind. This differs from L. excubitor in having a 

 narrow black frontal band, and in the secondaries having their whole 

 inner webs, and a broad tip and margin to the terminal half of their 

 outer webs, white. It does not seem to occur in Lower Bengal ; nor 

 have I seen it from the Himalaya, or from the countries eastward : but 

 it is of general occurrence on the plains of Upper India and the Northern 

 portion of the peninsula, extending to Scinde, and it is likewise found 

 at Rajmahl. 



There is a remarkable specimen in the Museum, with the habitat of 

 which I am unacquainted, and which is probably not Indian : but it 

 seems to be a new species, and as such may be here described : — 



L. longipennis, nobis. A large grey Shrike, with a fine blush on the 

 under-parts, a very broad black frontal band, and singularly long 

 straight wings, having the first primary very short, and the second near- 

 ly as long as the third. It is, therefore, a Lanius of Vigors, as opposed 

 to his Collurio ; to which latter all the other Indian species belong, 

 even L. Hardwickii. Length about eight inches and a half, of wing 

 four arid three-quarters, its first primary but seven-eighths of an inch ; 

 and middle tail-feathers three and three-quarters, the outermost three- 

 quarters less : bill to gape seven-eighths ; and tarse an inch. Upper- 

 parts ash-grey, darker and less pure than in L. excubitor and L. lahtora, 

 except over the rump ; throat, middle of belly, and lower tail-coverts, 

 white ; the rest of the under-parts subdued white, with a roseate blush ; 

 broad frontal band to a level with the eyes, and streak comprising the 

 ear- coverts, black ; wings and tail dull black ; the basal third of the 

 primaries white, forming a wing-band ; tertiaries slightly tipped with 

 the same ; and outermost tail-feathers wholly white, the penultimate 

 with only a dark spot on its inner web, and a dark shaft, with a narrow 

 contiguous stripe on its outer web, and the two next tail-feathers white 

 at base and tip ; the ante- penultimate more broadly so. Bill black, with 

 white spot at extreme base of lower mandible ; and legs brown-black. 



