LALAGE SYKESL 
(THE BLACK-HEADED CUCKOO-SHRIKE.) 
Cehlepyris canus, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p, 87. 
Lalage syJcesi^ Strickl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Plist. 1844, xiii. p. 36 ; Horsf. &c Moore, Cat. B. 
Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 175 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 89 (1879). 
Campephaga sykesii, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 283 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 191 (1849) ; 
Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 128 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 368. 
Volvocivom sykesii, Bp. Consp. i. p. 356 ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 414 (1862); Plume, Nests 
and Eggs, i. p. 179 (1873) ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 399, et 1875, p. 291 ; Butler, 
ibid. 1875, p. 464 ; P''airbank, ibid. 1876, p. 256, et 1877, p. 400 ; Butler, ibid. 1877, 
p. 220. 
Lesser Caterpillar-catcher of some. 
Jungli kasya, Hind. ; Chuma akurayi, lit. “ Lesser File-bird,” Telugu. 
Adult male. Length 7'3 to 7'75 inches ; wing 3-8 to 4-0 ; tail 3-0 ; tarsus 0-8 ; middle toe and claw 0-75 to 0-8 ; bill 
to gape 0-85. 
Iris brownish red ; bill black ; legs and feet black, with slaty edges to the scales of the tarsi ; claws black. 
Head, back, and sides of neck, chin, throat, and fore neck glossy black, abruptly divdded from the pale gre}^ of the 
chest and flanks, and blending into the slate-grey of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and upper tail-coverts, on 
which latter this colour is palest; wings and tail black, the 1st primary wholly so, the remainder with the basal 
portion of their inner webs white ; secondaries and greater coverts margined with the grey of the back ; the three 
outer pairs of tail-feathers white at the tips ; the next p.air have their e.xtreme tips slaty white, the two central ones 
slaty, darkening into blackish near the tips ; lower parts white, blending into the grey of the flanks and chest ; 
under wing-coverts whitish, washed with slaty ; thighs slaty. 
Adult female. Shorter in the wing, which usually measures 3’7 inches. 
Iris brown ; bill blackish, light at the gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet brownish slate. 
Above dusky bluish grey, wanting the black head ; a light line above the brownish lores ; ear-coverts striped with 
white ; rump barred with white ; wings brownish black, with the edgings whitish ; the central rectrices without 
the black patch. Beneath white, barred, except on the belly and lower tail-coverts, with blackish brown ; thighs 
slaty, barred with dark g^e 3 ^ 
Young. Bill not so black as in the adult female; Upper surface brownish slate, the feathers with a blackish subterminal 
bar and white tip, Tertials very broadly edged with white, and the quills and tail-feathers all tipped white. 
Beneath barred as the female. 
Male in second stage very similar to the adult female. The lores and ear-coverts black, and the head generally mingled 
with black feathers ; a bluish wash over the throat and chest ; the bars on the flanks and lower breast not so bold 
as in the adult female. The loral spot is blacker than adults of the other sex. An example in this stage before 
me has also the ground-colour of the throat pervaded with greyish, but nevertheless barred quite u]) to the chin , 
there are a few black feathers on the crown, some of which are new, while others are old and appear to be t ranging 
from the grey to the black colour. 
OU. Blyth has stated that the adult female has a black head and neck, as in the male. Mr. Holdsworth’s experience 
o£ t^e plumage of this sex accords with my own ; and I cannot come to any other conclusion but that Blyth s 
specimens from which he drew this inference were wrongly sexed. Mr. Adam, I observe, speaks of an immature 
female, shot at Sambhur, having some of the head-feathers black, and the under surface, from the throat to the 
abdomen, crossed with wavy lines ; this is the precise character of the change of pluma,ge in the young male. 
Ceylonese specimens of this bird compare well with Indian. The latter are, perhaps, a trifle larger. ^ I wo examples 
3 B 
