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Show 1870.] ON EUROPEAN SHRIKES. 591 the two outermost being almost entirely white; cheeks and the whole of the under surface of the body pure white ; legs slender, dark brownish black ; bill black. Female. Similar to tbe male, but the under parts greyish and exhibiting slight traces of transverse vermiculations. Young. Much duller in plumage, the black parts being mixed with brown, the under parts dirty greyish white ; bill and feet brown. This Shrike appears to vary very much according to age, the wing-coverts, forehead, and rump being of a much purer white in some specimens. The slender legs and double bar on the wing render it easily distinguishable from L. lahtora, which very old and pallid specimens at a first glance somewhat resemble. From Lanius borealis it is distinguishable by the absence of vermiculations on the breast and the double bar on the wing. The latter character, indeed, seems to be peculiar to Lanius excubitor alone ; but we would remark that it is only gradually assumed, and, though very distinct in the adult bird, is only feebly developed and sometimes hidden by the greater wing-coverts in young specimens. It can, however, be almost always discovered on close examination. The range of the present species extends over the northern and central portions of the Palaearctic Region as far north as the birch and willow are found. In the south of Europe it is only a winter migrant. To the eastward its range is yet undetermined ; for though the Siberian travellers record it as being met with throughout Siberia, we find that the specimens collected on the Amoor aud marked Lanius excubitor by the Russian naturalists are L. lahtora, as hereafter mentioned. The bird which occurs in Central Asia is also of the latter species. W e have already stated that L. excubitor is migratory in the South of Europe. Dr. von Heuglin states that it is a rare bird in Northeastern Africa, but he has only observed it in the winter in Egypt, and killed it in Arabia Petraea. W e fully endorse his opinion, subsequently expressed, that it is probable that many of the observations as to the occurrence of the Great Grey Shrike in North-eastern Africa, made by Brehm, Riippell, and Hemprich and Ehrenberg, refer to some of the allied species. W e are inclined to question Mr. C. W . Wyatt's assertion ('Ibis,' 1870, p. 12) that Lanius excubitor is common in tbe Sinaitic peninsula; but as so good an observer as Dr. von Heuglin expressly states that he has himself shot it in that locality, we feel bound to admit its range so far south. W e are, however, sceptical enough to be very anxious to see a specimen of true L. excubitor from the shores of the Mediterranean or North-eastern Africa. 2. LANIUS BOREALIS. Lanius borealis, Vieill. Ois. de i'Ame'r. Sept. pl. 50 (1807); Swains. Faun. Bor.-Am., Birds, p. Ill, pl. xxxiii. (1831) ; Aud. Syn. p. 157 (1839); id. B. of A. iv. p. 130 (1839) ; Gray Gen. of B. i. p. 294 (1847); Cass. Proc. Phil. Acad. 1857, p. 212 ; Jones, Nat. Hist, of Berm.p. 51 (1857); Max. Journ. f. Orn. 1858, p. 190. |
