THE PIED CUCKOO-SHRIKE 
Lalage nigm nigm (Forst.) 
Description; — The male and female of this bird differ 
greatly in the colour of the plumage. 
The male has. the top of the head, back, wings and tail 
glossy black, but the wings and tail with conspicuous white 
markings. The rump is pale grey and the underparts dirty 
white slightly washed with grey. 
The female (figured in the plate) has the black upper part 
of the male replace by brownish grey and the whitish under- 
parts have thin dusky bars. 
The iris is brown or dull red and the bill and feet black- 
Length about 61 inches, wing 3* inches, 
Distfibuiion :—Thh cuckoo-shrike or a closely allied form 
is found in the Nicobar Islands, the Malay Peninsuia. Java, 
Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines and even the birds of 
countries yet further east could no doubt be linked np with 
the present species. 
Status in Singapore This is a common bird in Singa- 
pore, but like the Malayan nightjar it seems to withdraw in 
the breeding season and to become particularly uumerous in 
the antnmn months. At this latter season young birds pre- 
dominate, 
Kelham definitely states that the bird breeds in Sinjiapore 
and mentions seeing yoimg birds at Tanglm on ist September, 
but he does not say how young the birds were and we should 
like further evidence of the breeding of the bird on the island. 
Some birds migrate and are found long distances from their 
breeding grounds when they are almost incredibly young. In 
Singapore the species usually appears in very scattered flocks, 
the birds flying from bush to bush or from pole to pole on 
the tennis courts after the fashion of shrikes. 
[174] 
