74 Miscellaneous. 



attracted the notice of the individual, who, after watching it for 

 some time, got near enough to shoot it, in the neighbourhood of 

 Newtown, St. Boswell's Green, Roxburghshire. I was informed by 

 his brother, that it flew in a peculiarly jerking and undulatory manner, 

 rising and falling in its flight along the hedge side. This was in the 

 end of the month of February, or beginning of March ; the other 

 individuals having been killed about the end of winter or beginning 

 of spring. It seems to be a full-sized bird ; but from the slightly 

 mottled appearance of the breast and belly, instead of white, as it 

 is described, it may be a young male, or perhaps a female. [I regret 

 this was not ascertained by dissection.] 



Cuvier says, " It is rather common in France, where it remains 

 throughout the year." It is however only an occasional visitor in 

 Britain, and has generally been observed between autumn and early 

 spring. Yarrell, in his valuable and beautiful book on * British Birds,' 

 gives various localities in England, and even Ireland, in which it has 

 been found, but does not allude to any instance of its occurrence in 

 Scotland. MacGillivray mentions in his excellent and elaborate work 

 on British Birds, that to his knowledge it has been shot in the 

 counties of Peebles, Lanark, Midlothian and Eastlothian. And that 

 at the time his book was published, 1840, there were four Scottish 

 specimens in Edinburgh, including one in his own possession ; and 

 from having examined the bird in a fresh state, as well as stuffed, 

 and in skin, he considers himself qualified to state, that when the 

 wing is closed, as represented by Mr. Selby, and also by Mr. Gould, 

 two contiguous patches of white are seen, one on the base of the pri- 

 maries, the other on that of the secondaries, and of this he gives a 

 figure {vide vol. hi. p. 191). He supposes these gentlemen, in re- 

 presenting this bird with only one patch on the primaries, have mis- 

 taken for it the Lanius borealis, or the Lanius ludovicianus. These 

 birds however are distinguished from the L. excubitor, which they 

 considerably resemble, by several characters, one of these being the 

 different proportional lengths of the quill-feathers ; the Lanius 

 borealis according to Cuvier, having the third primary the longest, 

 and the fourth equal to the second : the L. ludovicianus has the 

 second primary the longest, and the first and fifth equal ; while in the 

 L. excubitor the first quill is only half as long as the second, the 

 second shorter than the third, fourth, or fifth, which are nearly equal, 

 and the longest in the wing, the sixth being but very little longer 

 than the second. Yarrell, I may mention, describes this bird as 

 having the wing primaries and secondaries black, with a white bar at 

 their base, which when the wing is closed form two white spots. Now 

 in the specimen exhibited, which corresponds exactly with all the 

 characters given of the L. excubitor, there appears to be only one 

 white spot, on the primaries, when the wing is closed ; as figured in 

 the splendid works of Selby' s 'Ornithology,' and Gould's ' Birds of 

 Europe,' already alluded to. The woodcut in Bewick's ' Birds ' seems 

 also to correspond in this respect with this specimen. Whether or 

 not this may be an accidental variety, I am unable to determine ; and 

 may I suggest the possibility of its being a mark of a young bird (as 



