TEPHEODOENIS PONDICEEIANES. 
(THE COMMON WOOD-SHRIKE.) 
Mu8cicaj)a ^ondiceriana, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 939 (1788). 
Tephrodornis siiperciliosus, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 237. 
Tephrodornis pondicenana, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1840, xv. p. 305 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 
p. 153 (1849) ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 169 (1854) ; Jerdon, B. of 
Ind. i. p. 410 (1862); Holdsworth, P, Z. S. 1872, p. 437 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. 
p. 176 (1873) ; id. Str. Feath. 1873, p. 177 ; Adam, t. c. p. 376 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, 
p. 399; Hume, ibid. 1875, p. 92; Legge, ibid. 1876, p. 243 ; Hume, t.c. p. 458. 
Tephrodornis affinis, Blyth, J.A. S. B. 1847, xvi. p. 473; id. Cat. B.Mus. A. S. B. p. 153(1849); 
Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 124 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854,xiii.p.l31; 
Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 305; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 437 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 16. 
Tephrodornis pondicerianus, Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 275. 
Gobe-mouche de Pondichery, Sonnerat ; The Keroida Shrike, Latham ; Butcher-bird, Kelaart ; 
The Bush-Shrike in India. 
Keroula, Hind.; Chudukka, Beng. ; Via pitta, lit. “Whistling-bird,” Tel. 
Adxat male and female. Leugth 5-9 to 6-4 inches ; wing 3-2 to 3-5; tail 2'4 to 2-o; tarsus 0-7 to 0-8 ; mid toe and 
claw 0‘65 ; bill to gape 0'95 to 1'05. 
Iris pale olive or yellowish olive, sometimes with the inner half briglit yellow, at others with a green inner ring ; bill 
with the upper mandible and terminal half of the lower dark brown, base beneath light fleshy ; legs and feet dusky 
slate-blue or bluish slate, claws blackish. 
Above slaty grey in specimens from the hills and Western Province, duskier or ashy brown in those from the northern 
parts of the island ; loros, upper part of cheek, and the ear-coverts blackish brown ; a whitish snpercilium, variable 
in size and in length, but always more or less well defined ; beneath the brown cheek-patch a whitish stripe ; wings 
brown, the tertials pale-edged ; tips of the longer rump-feathers and the shorter upper tail-coverts white, forming a 
bar across the rump, which is variable in width and usually broadest in birds which are most slaty in hue ; longer 
upper tail-coverts black, four central pairs of rectrices blackish brown, darkening to black at the base ; two outer 
pairs white with dark bases, and the tips marked as follows : — a brown stripe near the tip of the external web of 
the outermost, the same at the tip of the next, wdth an adjacent spot often across the inner web ; in some specimens, 
probably not very old, this latter does not exist, the streaks on the outer webs are v'ery small, and the outer web 
of the 3rd feather has a white streak at the centre. 
Throat, lower breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white ; the sides of the throat more or less washed with brownish, 
in the form of streaks, and the chest and upper part of the breast pale cinereous ashy ; thighs brownish. 
Ohs. As already remarked, the tints in the plumage of this species vary. I have found that the most slaty-coloured 
specimens come from the AVestern ProAunce and the Nuwara-Elliya district ; a Haputale and a Dumbara specimen 
are both brownish, nearly as much so as a Triueomalie and an Aripu example. Birds from the Halle district 
do not seem to be as slaty as those from Colombo. It must be also observed that when newly acquired, the 
feathers are most bluish ; on becoming abraded, they lose the slaty tint and present an ashy appearance. 
Foantj. Bill lighter than the adult, as a rule ; iris olive. 
in nestling plumage pale rufous-brown above, the forehead and head very conspicuously spotted with white, the back less 
so; greater wing-coverts and tertials fulvous, with a dark crescentic line and white tips; the three outer rectrices 
are white and more marked at the tips ; the dark stripe from the base of the lower mandible is more defined and 
the supercihum absent, although the white spots sometimes take the form of a stripe. 
In the next stage the upper surface is darker and less spotted ; there is a trace of a supercihum beyond the e3'e ; in 
some the upper tail-coverts are partially white; the third rectrix from the exterior is now blackish brown, as in 
the adult, and all are tipped with white. Under surface much as in the adult ; the chest, perhaps, a little darker. 
