THE WHITE-TAILED WOOD-SHRIKE. 255 
coverts and tertiaries are tipped with white, and the supercilium is only 
slightly indicated j the white on the tail extends to the third pair of 
feathers. 
Bill dark horn-colour ; inside of mouth flesh-colour ; eyelids plumbeous ; 
iris yellowish brown ; legs and feet dark plumbeous brown ; claws dark 
horn-colour. » 
Length 6*5 inches, tail 2'7, wing 3*3, tarsus '76, bill from gape '88. 
The female is of about the same size. 
Birds from difi'erent parts of the continent of India and from Burmah 
vary much in shade of colouring and in the extent of the supercilium. 
Specimens from Burmah have usually the supercilium very well developed 
and the colour of the plumage deeper. 
I have been able to examine very few examples of the Ceylonese form T. 
affinis, and I am not consequently in a position to judge whether it is a really 
good separable form. Messrs. Holdsworth and Hume and Capt. Legge unite 
the insular with the continental form, while Mr. Sharpe keeps them separate. 
I do not think any clear line of distinction can be drawn between the two 
supposed species. In T. affinis the back is said to be more slaty than in the 
majority of T. pondiceriana and the eye-streak but faintly indicated. These 
characters vary so much even in birds from one locality that not much 
weight can be attached to them. ^ 
This Wood- Shrike is spread over the whole of Pegu, where it is a constant 
resident. Capt. Wardlaw Hamsay got it in Tonghoo ; but Mr. Davison 
did not meet with it in any portion of Tenasserim, and probably this bird 
does not cross to the east of the Sittang river except as a straggler. It is 
pretty certain to be found in Arrakan, but it does not appear ever to have 
been recorded from that Division. 
Out of British Burmah it has a very extensive range. Dr. Anderson 
procured it near Bhamo in Upper Burmah. It probably occurs over the 
whole of the Indo-Burmese countries and the Eastern-Bengal tracts. Dr. 
Jerdon states that it is found in Assam. From this province it extends 
along the Himalayas as far as the North-west Provinces and over the whole 
of the peninsula of India and Ceylon. Its western limit appears to be 
Kutch, Scinde and the Punjaub. 
The White-tailed Wood-Shrike is tolerably numerous in the well-wooded 
parts of Pegu, but does not affect thick forests nor does it ascend the higher 
hills. It is as often seen alone as in small flocks, flying about from tree 
to tree in a deliberate slow manner, searching the leaves for insects. Its 
usual note is sweet but low, and at the approach of the hot weather in March 
and April the male has a simple but melodious little song. 
I found the nest of this Wood- Shrike near Pegu in March. It was 
placed on a fork at the extremity of one of the lower branches of a large 
cotton-tree and was made of vegetable fibres and lined with fine black roots. 
