Re: Lanius lahulensis
Lanius tephronotus lahulensis Koelz 1950 Am.Mus.Novit. no.1452 p.7
http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/4237/1/N1452.pdf
Remarks: Whistler and Kinnear (1933, Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 36, pp. 336-337) recognized this form but transferred Vigors’ tephronotus, to it, leaving Hodgson’s nipalensis for the real tephronotus, but this transfer of names is not justified. (see Mayr, 1947 Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 47, p. 126).
From a Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the Hon. East India Co.:
Lanius Tephronotus, Vigors
Collurio tephronotus Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831 p. 43
Lanius nipalensis, Hodgs., Ind. Rev. I. p. 445 1837
Collurio obscurior, Hodgs., Gray Zool. Misc. (1844) . 84
Another source; Collurio nipalensis var. tephronotus Hodgson MS. The Bagaha Shrike
“This Shrike is common in the open country in Nepal,” says Mr. Hodgson, “in groves and gardens during winter, but resorts to the woods in summer. It feeds on all sorts of hard and soft (both flying and creeping) insects and their larvae and pupae; also small lizerds, feeble birds, mice, and almost any living thing the bird can master; perches on the upper and barer branches of trees and bushes, whence it descends to sseize its prey on the ground; sometimes picks it from foliage, but seldom seizes on the wing. Has a harsh voice, very like the kestril’s and is perpetually vociferating from its perch. It is bold and daring in its manners, and easily caught by any insect bait.” (Ind. Rev. I. p. 445)
Gray’s Zool. Miscellany is available on the internet but not the pages of Hodgson 1844.
Gould’s work was intended to illustrate new birds described in a
series of six papers by Nicholas Vigors in the “Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence
of the Zoological Society of London” (1831-1832) Collurio tephronotus was not illustrated in the “Century”. Systematic notes on Asian birds. 27. On the dates of publication of John Gould’s
“A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains”
I.A.W. McAllan & M.D. Bruce
Catalogue of Indian Birds J.A.S.Bengal 1832, quoting Vigors, PZS 1831
“This bird was also observed to be closely allied to the last (Collurio erythronotus) and to differ from it only to sex and age. Until such points however could be ascertained, it was considered advisable to regard it as specifically distinct.”
Taxonomic status of eight Asian shrike species (Lanius): phylogenetic analysis based on Cyt b and CoI gene sequences
Authors: Zhang, Wei; Lei, Fu-Min; Liang, Gang; Yin, Zuo-Hua; Zhao, Hong-Feng; Wang, Hong-Jian; Krištín, Anton
Source: Acta Ornithologica, Volume 42, Number 2, December 2007 , pp. 173-180(8)
Publisher: Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Abstract:
Complete Cyt b gene sequences (1143bp), partial CoI gene sequences (1176bp) and Cyt b gene sequences combined with CoI gene sequences (2319bp) from 22 samples of 8 Lanius species were analysed using the phylogenetic method. Molecular phylogenetic trees were reconstructed using the Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML), Neighbour-joining (NJ) and MrBayesV3.1 (BI) methods. 228 and 216 nucleotide sites were found to be substituted in the Cyt b gene and CoI gene sequences respectively, accounting for 19.5% and 18.4% of the total nucleotide sites in the Cyt b gene and CoI gene sequences. In the phylogenetic trees, L. minor and L. tigrinus were the first to diverge. Then, a parallel clade diverged: one was clustered with L. isabellinus and L. collurio, which formed a sister group; the other was clustered with L. schach and L. cristatus, which was parallel to the cluster of L. tephronotus and L. bucephalus. Shrikes L. isabellinus, L. collurio, L. schach and L. tephronotus were independent species. The melanistic form of L. schach is a variation group of L. schach.
