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Show 1870.] ON EUROPEAN SHRIKES. 597 agree with specimens from different parts of India. The differences supposed by various authors to be of specific value appear to us to be nothing more than those caused by the relative age of the bird : thus L. hemileucurus of Finsch and Hartl. is a very mature bird; Lanius pallens of Cassin (=L. dealbatus, Defil.) is the ordinary adult; and L. fallax of Finsch and Hartl. is the young. In tbe young bird there is no great extent of white on the forehead, scapulars, and rump, nor are the underparts of so pure a tint. Young birds generally have the underparts tinged with grey. W e should not have ventured thus to unite species which have been reckoned distinct by some of the first ornithologists of the day, without sufficient material to warrant us in this determination ; and we may state that we have examined a numerous series of specimens from all parts of Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, Abyssinia, Palestine, many parts of India, and even Amoor Land, from our own collections and those of the following noblemen and gentlemen who have placed their Shrikes at our disposal, viz. Lord Walden, Lord Lilford, Professor Newton, Rev. Dr. Tristram, Messrs. Sclater, Salvin and Godman, and Swinhoe, to whom we take this opportunity of returning our best thanks for their courtesy. From all the other Shrikes this species is preeminently distinguishable by tbe thickset rough leg and white back. The only bird which at all approaches it is Lanius algeriensis, to which the young of L. lahtora bear a slight resemblance, but which could not for a moment be mistaken for it even in that stage of plumage, owing to the very dark tint of the head and back in Lanius algeriensis. Mr. Swinhoe has very kindly lent us two specimens collected in the Amoor Land by Dr. Maack, the one adult, the other immature. The former, on comparison with very adult specimens of the so-called Lanius hemileucurus from Algeria, and old Lanius lahtora from the Punjab, is absolutely similar in every respect, while the young bird from the Amoor Land precisely agrees with a typical specimen of Lanius fallax from Abyssinia. Pere David, in his list of Peking birds (Nouv. Archiv. hi., Bull. p. 35) states that he has obtained a large Shrike, which he calls L. major, Pall., rather rarely in that neighbourhood; and he also includes another species under the name of L. meridionalis, Temm., which, however, has been identified by M . Jules Verreaux as the young of L. excubitor. W e think that the birds here mentioned belong to the same species as the Amoor bird in Mr. Swinhoe's collection. Pere David says that the old bird has a tinge of pink on the breast. W e have also noticed this in Mr. Swinhoe's specimen; but as it sometimes occurs slightly on adult birds from other localities, we do not affix any specific importance to the fact. Lanius lahtora has probably tbe most extended range of any of the Grey Shrikes, occurring along the southern shores of the Mediterranean basin, through the countries bordering the Red Sea, Palestine, and thence throughout the whole of India extending northward to the Amoor country. W e have seen specimens from Central |