Lanius validirostris Grant, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1894), 3, 49;
Ibis (1894), 512; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 226 (habits).
Cephalophoneus validirostris Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 286;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 92.
Luzon (Whitehead, Worcester, McGregor); Mindoro (Whitehead).
Adult male.--Upper parts slate-gray, pale gray on forehead and over
eye; frontal band, lores, ear-coverts, and line above and below
eye black, forming a broad band to side of neck; under parts white;
flanks cinnamon-buff, crissum faintly washed with buff; thighs black;
wings blackish; inner secondaries margined with white on outer webs;
rectrices blackish, the two or three outer pairs narrowly tipped
with white. Bill and nails black; legs blackish brown; iris dark
brown. Length, about 210; wing, 87; tail, 97; culmen from base, 17;
bill from nostril, 12; tarsus, 24.
"Adult female.--Differs slightly in having the black on the sides of
the face paler and absent on the forehead, which is whitish gray; the
whitish gray margins to the superciliaries are more marked; the margins
to the secondaries are rufous-buff, and the thighs are gray. Length,
200; wing, 86; tail, 89; tarsus, 25; culmen, 23." (Grant.)
Young.--Young birds, in first plumage, have the upper part smoky
gray; frontal band, lores, and band through eye black; chin, throat,
and middle of abdomen white; thighs black; remainder of under parts
tawny-buff; breast and malar region speckled with smoky brown, but
no bars on the under parts; wings and tail blackish brown; greater
secondary-coverts, inner secondaries and nearly all the remiges edged
with tawny-buff.
The strong-billed shrike is fairly abundant in Benguet Province, Luzon.