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267. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 412 ; Butler, Deccan ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 393.

The Little Pied Shrike.
 

Length, 5.5; expanse, 7.6 ; wing, 2.3 to 2.5; tail, 2.3 to 2.5 ; tarsus, 0.5 ; bill at front, 0.4; bill from gape, 0.7.

Bill black; irides hazel; legs plumbeous-brown.

Male, above black glossed, less so on the back and scapulars, with a white nuchal collar and white rump ; band on the -wings white; tail with the lateral feathers tipped with white, more broadly so on the outermost feathers ; beneath white, tinged with reddish-ashy, purer white on the throat, vent, and under tail-coverts.

The female differs in having the upper parts dull sooty brown-black.

Within our limits the Little Pied Shrike only occurs in various parts of the Deccan and South Mahratta country. I cannot do better than reproduce, in extenso, what Major Butler has written concerning its distribution. He says : :-

" Locally not uncommon along the Sahyadri Range. Mr. Fairbank obtained it at Nagar ; Mr. Laird in the jungles south-west of Belgaum ; Mr. Crawford at Savantwadi; and Mr. Vidal mentions it from the south of Ratnagiri; outside of the forests tracts it probably does not occur."

 

The Brown-backed Pied Shrike.

Muscicapa capitalis, McClelland, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 157. Hemipus capitalis (McClell.), Myth, Cat. p. 154; Godw.-Aust. J. A S. B. xxxix, pt. ii, p. 99; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii, p. 306; Hume & Dav. S. F. vi, p. 208; Hume, Cat. no. 267 A ; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 647 ; Oates in Hume's N. & E. 2nd ed. i, p. 328.

Coloration. Resembles H. picatus. The male differs from the male of that species in having the back, scapulars, and rump smoky brown. The females of the two species are undistinguishable.

Of the same size as H. picatus.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Garhwal to Assam ; the hill-tracts of Assam down to Manipur; the Kakhyen hills east of Bhamo.

 

The Black-backed Pied Shrike.

Coloration. Male. The upper plumage with the lores and ear-coverts glossy brown ; the rump-feathers broadly tipped with white ; chin, vent, and under tail-coverts pure white ; the remainder of the lower plumage pale vinaceous ; cheeks and sides of the neck white, produced so as to form an indistinct white collar round the neck; lesser wing-coverts black; median coverts black, broadly tipped with white ; the outer greater coverts black ; the inner ones white on the outer and black on the inner webs ; primary-coverts and all the quills black ; the later secondaries broadly edged with white; tail black, all but the middle feathers tipped with white, the white on the outermost feathers extending over the whole outer web.

Female. Similar to the male, but the black is replaced by sooty brown.

The young resemble the female, but have the upper plumage barred with rufous and the wing-coverts mottled with brown.

Bill black; inside of the mouth bluish black ; iris hazel; eyelids plumbeous ; legs plumbeous brown ; claws dark brown.

Length 5.4 ; tail 2.4 ; wing 2.5 ; tarsus .45; bill from gape .7.

Distribution. The Satpura hills and the whole of Western India from Mahableshwar to Cape Comorin ; Mysore ; Ceylon ; the Oudh and Sikhim terais ; Chutia Nagpur ; Tipperah ; Manipur ; Karennee; the whole of Burma to the extreme south of Tenasserim. This species extends to Siam and Cochin China.

Habits, &c. A nest found by Davison at Ootacamund in March was a small shallow cup made of grass and roots, and covered with cobwebs and lichens. It was placed in the branch of a tree and contained three eggs, which were pale green marked with umber-brown, and measured .69 by .49.

 

The Malay Pied Shrike.

Muscicapa obscura, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 146 (1821). Hemipus obscurus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv, p. 305; id. Cat. p. 154; id. Birds Burin, p. 122 ; Hume & Dav. S. F. vi, p. 209; Sharpe, Cut. B. M. iii, p. 305; Oates, B. B. i, p. 2J0 ; Baker, Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. ix, p. 113. For description see Vol. I, p. 473, footnote.

Distribution, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca. Blyth, in his Catalogue, gave Tenasserim as a locality, and in his ' Birds of Burma' Mergui. Oates included the species in the ' Birds of Burma,' but, for the reasons given in the footnote already quoted, omitted it from the present work. As a specimen has now been secured, together with its nest, at Laisung, North Cachar, by Mr. Stuart Baker, it is probable that Blyth was correctly informed, and the species must be included in the Indian fauna.

Vol. I, pp. 479-481. Nos. 490, 491, Pericrocotus speciosus and P. fraterculus. Numerous specimens showing a passage between these two have been obtained in the Cachar hills. Baker, Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. ix, p. 116; x, pp. 151,631.

Vol. II, p. 9. Add to the synonymy of No. 561, Siphia parva:—

Rubecola tytleri, Jameson, Bdinb. jv. Phil. Jour, xix, p. 214 (1835).

Mr. W. Eagle Clarke has found Jameson's type in the Edinburgh Museum (Ibis, 1892, p. 558). By Jerdon B. tytleri was referred with doubt to Erythrosterna leucura (=562. Siphia albicilta). The references, Jerdon, B. I. iii, Appendix, p. 871; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 372; 1870, p. 166, should be added to the synonymy of Erythrosterna paroa under No. 561. There are Western Himalayan specimens in the British Museum.

Vol. II, p. 97. A comparison of Buticilla erythrogaster from the Caucasus, the original locality, has induced the Hon. W. Rothschild (Nov. Zool. iv, p. 168, 1897) to distinguish No. 645, the Himalayan and Central Asiatic race, as R. grandis, Gould (P. Z. S. 1849, p. 112). Both sexes of this bird are said to be considerably paler in colour. The only Caucasian specimen I have been able to examine is much more richly coloured than Himalayan skins.

Vol. II, p. 100. Richmond (Proc. U.S. National Museum, xviii, p. 484) describes No. 648, the White-spotted Bluethroat, from Ladak as a new species under the name of Cyanecula abbotti, said to be distinguished from C. wolfi by the deeper blue of the throat, the blue lores, and the longer bill. After examining the series in the British Museum collection, I cannot see that there is any constant difference between Asiatic and European birds, and I do not think they need separation.

Vol. II, p. 104. No. 652, Calliope tschebaiewi figured, Baker, Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. ix, pl. C.

Vol. II, p. 221. Salvadori has shown, Ibis, 1888, p. 320, that Bucanetes, Cabanis, 1857, must be used for this genus, not Erythrospiza, Bonap., which is a synonym of Carpodacus.

Vol. II, p. 301. Genus Anthus. As was anticipated (Vol. II, p. 304) A. pratensis has been found within Indian limits. Blyth (Ibis, 1867, p. 32) stated that he had seen undoubted specimens from North-western India, but his remark appears to nave been disregarded, probably because Hume doubled whether some Indian skins previously referred to A. pratensis by J. Verreaux were correctly identified.

 

Muscicapa capitalis Horsfield, P. Z. S., 1839, p. 157, Mch. 1840, ex McClelland MS.: Assam.

 

Hemipus picatus picatus Sykes.

 

Muscicapa picata Sykes, P. Z. S., July 31, 1832, p. 85 : Dukhun.

Muscicapa tyrannides Tickell, J. A, S. B., vol. ii, p. 574, Nov. 1833: Sisdah, Borabhum.

Hemipus picaecolor Hodgs, in Gray's Zool. Miscell., 1844, p. 84; new name for M. picata Sykes.