THE THICK-BILLED SHRIKE. 
253 
peninsula of India with Ceylon and the Andaman Islands. In summer it 
appears to be spread over Thibet^ Mongolia and portions of Siberia. 
This Shrike is said to breed occasionally in the plains of India^ but the 
evidence on this point is not very satisfactory. It is apparently as much a 
winter migrant in India as it is in Burmah. 
The Brown Shrike is a well-known bird^ conspicuous for the open manner 
in which it carries on its pursuits. It may be seen daily in every compound, 
and it is remarkable for the pertinacity with which it clings for months to 
one spot. I believe that many of these birds return to the same garden 
year after year, and even to the same perch. 
The cry of this Shrike is very loud and shrill, but it is said at times, in 
common with other Shrikes, to have a pleasant song. This is probably 
only at the breeding-season, and is not heard in Burmah. I have never 
seen it catch any thing larger than a grasshopper ; but it may at times, 
like its brethren in other countries, occasionally kill and impale a young 
and sickly bird. 
241. LANIUS MAGNIROSTRIS. 
THE THICK-BILLED SHRIKE. 
Lanius magnirostris, Less. Voy. Belang, p. 251 ; Wold. Ibis, 1867, p. 220, pi. vi. ; 
id. Ibis, 1871, p. 173 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine., p. 97 ; Hume ^' Dav. S. F. 
vi. p. 203 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 91. Lanius waldeni, SwinJioe, P. Z. S. 1870, 
p. 131, pi. ii. 
Description. — Male and female. Whole head above, the nape, sides of 
neck and a portion of the upper back grey; the forehead, lores and a 
broad band covering the eye and ear-coverts black ; back, rump and upper 
tail-coverts, the scapulars and the lesser and median wing-coverts chestnut, 
barred across with black ; greater wing-coverts and tertiaries dull chestnut, 
dusky interiorly and tipped pale ; primaries and secondaries brown, edged 
narrowly with rufous ; tail reddish brown, all but the central pair of 
feathers tipped with white ; the whole tail obsoletely barred across, and 
with a darker bar in front of the white tips; the entire lower plumage creamy 
white, a small portion of the flanks near the thighs barred with brown. 
The young have the whole upper plumage, including the head, reddish 
brown closely barred with black ; and the whole lower plumage, except the 
throat and the centre of the breast and abdomen, is barred with dark 
brown ; there is no black stripe on the side of the head, the whole of that 
part being fulvous speckled and mottled with brown ; the quills and tail 
are the same as in the adult. 
Legs and feet pale plumbeous blue, lavender-blue^ sometimes almost 
