464 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Other Genera. 
to India and Eastern Asia; the Siberian minivet, inhabiting Mantchuria in the 
summer time, and migrating through China to winter in the Philippine Islands 
and .the Malay Peninsula, being the hardiest of the family. It is grey above 
and white below, but the majority of minivets are gaudy in their attire, scarlet 
and yellow predominating in their plumage, or at least in that of the male 
bird, for the females are less gorgeous. The brilliantly-coloured Indian scarlet 
minivet (Verierocotus speciosus), like other members of its genus, is arboreal in 
its habits, and lives in family-parties, which fly briskly about the branches of 
their favourite trees in active pursuit of their insect prey. The call-note of the 
species is lively and frequently repeated. Nesting in April, this minivet constructs 
a beautifully cup-shaped nest of moss trimmed with lichens, which is placed in a 
slender branch. In colour the eggs are greyish white, marked with brown and 
inky purple. The adult male has the whole head, back, and scapulars glossy black; 
the lower surface from behind the throat, together with the rump and upper tail- 
coverts are vivid scarlet; while the wings are black, barred with scarlet; and the 
tail is scarlet except the middle pair of feathers which are black. 
The number of genera included in the shrike family renders it 
impossible to allude to all. Among them the pied shrikes ( Hemipus ) 
of India and Malaysia differ from the true shrikes by the broad and flattened 
beak, in which the edge of the upper mandible is merely notched near the tip, in 
place of being strongly notched and toothed. The wood-shrikes (Teplirodornis), 
of which there are three Indian representatives, are distinguished both from the 
preceding genus and the true shrikes by the squared tail; the general colour of 
the plumage being grey. The typical shrikes form the section Laniince, but a 
second section of the family known as the Dryoscopince includes a number of 
genera from Africa, of which Dryoscopus cethiopicus is a good representative. The 
Australian piping crows (Gymnorhina), which are here placed among the crows 
(p. 323), are by some writers included in the present family; and the same is the 
case with Struthidea (p. 322). On the other hand, the crow-shrikes ( Strepera ) of 
Australia are more generally referred to the Corvidce. There is also some difference 
of opinion as to whether the cuckoo-shrikes ( Campophaga and Grauccdus), which 
range from India to Australia, are likewise members of this family. Agreeing 
with the minivets in their spiny rump-feathers, the cuckoo-shrikes differ in having 
the tail but moderately instead of greatly graduated, while the outer feathers are 
more than three-quarters (instead of less than half) the entire length of the tail. 
The Wax wings. 
Family AmpelidIE. 
The waxwings, together with the allied South American family of the green- 
lets ( Vireonidce ), are generally placed between the shrikes on the one hand, and 
the thrushes and warblers on the other. Containing only five genera, with not 
more than some nine species, they are characterised by a short and slightly hooked 
bill, broad at the gape, long wings, and short legs; their plumage is very soft and 
silky. The waxwings are inhabitants of the northern half of both hemispheres, 
