248 
BIEDS OF BRITISH BTTRMAH. 
Family LANIIDiE. 
Subfamily LANIIN^. . 
Genus LANIUS, Linn. 
236. LANIUS NASUTUS. 
THE BLACK-HEADED SHRIKE. 
Lanius nasutus, Scop. Del. Faun, et Flor. Insuh. ii. p. 85 ; Tweedd. P. Z. S. 1877, 
pp. 692, 758 ; id. Trans. Z. Soc. ix. p. 169. CoUurio nigriceps, Frankl. P. Z. 8. 
1831, p. 117. Lanius nigriceps, Jerd B. Ind. i. p. 404 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 121 ; 
David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 95 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 644 ; Hume 8f Dav. 
S. F. vi. p. 202 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 268 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 91 ; Scully, S. F. 
viii. p. 264 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 199. Lanius tricolor, Hodgs. Ind. Rev. 1837, 
p. 446. CoUyrio nigriceps, Hume, Nests and Fggs, p. 172. 
Description. — Male and female. Whole head from the forehead to the nape, 
lores and feathers behind the eye black ; feathers immediately below the 
nape ashy ; back, scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut ; central 
pair of tail-feathers black, the others brown, becoming successively more and 
more rufous towards the outside, where they are broadly edged and tipped 
with pale rufous ; cheeks, sides of head below the black, chin and throat 
white ; breast and abdomen tinged with rufous ; flanks, vent and under tail- 
coverts rather bright rufous ; wing-coverts black ; quills brown, edged with 
rufous and the primaries with a patch of light fulvous at their bases. 
Iris dull reddish brown ; eyelids pinkish plumbeous ; bill dark horny 
black ; the base of the lower mandible and the gape fleshy plumbeous ; 
mouth flesh-colour; legs dark brown; claws black. 
Length 9*7 inches, tail 5, wing 3-8, tarsus 1*2, bill from gape 1. The 
female is nearly of the same size. 
The Black-headed Shrike appears to be generally distributed over Pegu 
and Arrakan. In the former Division it is abundant in the grassy plains 
which lie between the Pegu and the Sittang rivers. I also observed it at 
Prome, and Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay procured it at Tonghoo. Mr. Hume 
states that he has received it from the mouth of the Bassein river. Mr. 
Davison found it only in the northern portion of Tenasserim. 
Out of Burmah this Shrike has an extensive range. Dr. Tiraud states 
that it is common in Cochin China. Mr. Blyth gives it from Siam, and it 
appears to be abundant in the Philippine Islands. It extends into China 
and through the Indo-Burmese countries into India, where it inhabits the 
