396 BIHDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Family ARTAMID^. 
Genus ARTAMUS, Vieill 
369. ARTAMUS FUSCUS. 
THE SWALLOW-SHRIKE. 
Artamus fuscus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xvii. p. 297 ; Je7'd. B. hid. i. 
p. 441 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 194 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 127 ; Hume, S. F. iii. 
p. 102 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 321 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 101 ; Cripps, 
S. F. Yii. p. 273 ; Sharpe, in Rowley^s Orn. Misc. iii. p. 191 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, 
p. 666 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 92 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 203. 
Description. — Male and female. Lores black; head and neck all round 
deep grey ; back, scapulars, rump and the shorter upper tail-coverts 
brown with a vinaceous tinge ; longer tail-coverts white ; tail dark grey, 
tipped with whitish ; wings and coverts deep grey, darker at the tips, and 
all the quills with excessively fine but distinct margins of white near the tips 
and on portions of the inner webs; lower plumage from the throat downwards 
pale purplish brown ; lower tail-coverts whitish, finely barred with ashy. 
The young bird is barred above, the white margins to the quills are 
broader, and the wing-coverts are tipped with rufous. 
Bill clear pale blue, the tip and the anterior half of the margins brownish ; 
iris dark brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs slate-colour ; claws dark horn ; 
mouth black in some, in others yellow, probably varying acccording to 
season. 
Length 7'S inches, tail 2*5, wing 5*2, tarsus '65, bill from gape '95. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Swallow- Shrike, though somewhat capricious in its choice of 
localities, is very generally spread over the whole of Pegu. Mr. Blyth 
states that it is found in Arrakan ; and it is probably common in that 
Division. In Tenasserim Dr. Armstrong met with this bird only at 
Amherst, and Mr. Davison did not observe it at all in that Division. 
It extends through the Indo-Burmese countries, and inhabits the 
greater portion of the Indian peninsula and Ceylon. It is also found in 
South China, Siam and Cochin China. In the Andaman islands it is 
replaced by A. leucorhynchus , a species which has the rump and the whole 
lower surface white and the back and wings chocolate-brown. 
The Swallow- Shrike is usually found in large flocks. They perch chiefly 
on dead trees, and launch themselves into the air to capture insects, 
returning to the same perch again ; at times, however, the whole flock will 
sail about high in the air for long intervals, after the manner of the 
