Genus— BULESTES. 
Bulestes Cabanis, Mus. Heine, Vol. I., p. 66 (after 
October 23rd), 1851. Type (by monotypy) Lanius torquatus Latham. 
vSj^all Cracticine birds with comparatively slender bills, rounded wing, long 
tail and rather slender legs and feet. 
The bill is somewhat slender, the culmen rounded and with little basal 
expansion, the anterior portion rather strongly laterally compressed, the tip 
vertically sharply hooked as in preceding genus ; the under mandible nearly 
as deep as the upper and the conjoined depth at base is greater than the width ; 
succeeding the deep notch behind the descending tip the edges of the mandibles 
are straight ; the nostrils appear as linear slits about midway between the 
culmen and the mandible edge, near the base of the bill, but clearly separated, 
there being no approaching feathering nor is there any appreciable nasal groove 
only an indistinct impression ; there are a few nasal bristles not reaching the 
nostrils, but strong rictal bristles can be seen ; there is a triangular interramal 
space, feathered, and less than one- third the length of the mandible, and the 
gonys is a little upcurved and semikeeled. 
The wing has the fourth primary the longest, the third and fifth a little 
shorter and subequal, the sixth less, the second still shorter and subequal with 
the seventh, the first being half the second in length and much shorter than the 
secondaries. 
The tail is long and square. 
The legs are rather slender, the feet also comparatively delicate, the claws 
long and sharp ; the tarsus is generally seen as booted, but sometimes appears 
as obscurely scutellate ; the hind-toe is equal in length to the inner, but stouter, 
and the hind-claw is well curved, long and stout ; the inner is less than the 
outer, which is almost as long as the middle toe, but the claw is shorter ; the 
hind-toe and claw is little shorter than the middle toe and claw. 
The immature shows the bill to begin as nearly straight with a slightly 
hooked tip, and the nostrils as linear slits with horny operculum in a definite 
nasal groove with nasal bristles projecting and obscuring the nostrils. 
Key to the Species 
Larger, lores white 
Smaller, lores black 
B. torquatus 
B. mentalis 
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