485.  Hemipus capitalis (McClelland). The Brown-backed Pied Shrike.

Hemipus capitalis (McClell.), Hume, cat. no. 267 A.

I must premise that to the best of my belief there is no such thing as H. capitalis, McClell., in India, or, in other words, that this latter name is a mere synonym of H. picatus.[A]

[Footnote A:  Mr. Hume would probably now agree with me that H. picatus and H. capitalis are distinct species. H. picatus, however, is not confined to Southern India, but occurs along the Terais of Sikhim and Nepal, and throughout Burma. H. capitalis occurs on the Himalayas from Gurwhal to Assam.  There is little doubt that Captain Hutton’s nest did not really belong to a Pied Shrike.—­ED.]

Mr. Blyth remarks, Ibis, 1866:—­“Hemipus picatus.  Under this name two very distinct species are brought together by Dr. Jerdon:  H. capitalis (McClell., 1839; H. picaecolor, Hodgson, 1845) of the Himalaya, which is larger, with proportionally longer tail, and has a brown back; and H. picatus (Sykes) of Southern India and Ceylon, which has a black back.  Mr. Wallace has good series of both of them.

“Hemipus capitalis has accordingly to be added to the birds of India.”

Now, out of India, Mr. Wallace may have got hold of some brown-backed Hemipus, which is really distinct, but nothing is more certain (I speak after comparison of a large series from Southern India with a still larger, gathered from all parts of the Himalayas) than that the Southern and Northern Indian birds are identical, and that in both localities the males have black and the females brown backs.

Capt.  T. Hutton says:—­“On the 12th of May I procured a nest of this bird in the Dehra Doon; it was placed on the ground at the base of an overhanging rock, and was composed entirely of the hair of horses and cows and other cattle, which had doubtless been collected from the bushes and pasture-lands in the vicinity.  There were four eggs of a pale sea-green, spotted with rufous-brown, and forming an indistinct and nearly confluent ring at the larger end.  The bird had begun to sit.

“This curious little species is not uncommon in the outer hills up to 5000 feet in the summer months.”

The three eggs sent me by Captain Hutton appear to differ somewhat conspicuously from any other eggs of the Laniidae that I have yet seen.  The ground-colour is a very pale greenish white, and they are moderately thickly freckled and mottled all over, but most densely towards the large end (where, in one egg, there is a well-marked, though somewhat irregular, zone), with pale brownish pink and very pale purple.  In shape the eggs are very regular, rather broad ovals, and appear to have but little or no gloss.  They vary in length from 0.66 to 0.7 inch, and in breadth from 0.53 to 0.55 inch.

Dr. Jerdon’s evidence, so far as it goes, tallies with Captain Hutton’s account.  He says:—­“I obtained its nest once at Darjeeling, made of roots and grasses, with three greenish-white eggs, having a few rusty-red spots.”