( 392 ) 



rectrices, very short wings and somewhat, scaly appearance of chest and back. Under 

 tail-coverts bright yellow. Wing : c? about 82—87-5, but seldom above 84, ¥ about 

 74 to 79 mm. (45 specimens measured.) Young specimens have the under tail- 

 coverts paler, lemon yellow, and the tips to the rectrices brownish. 



With this species and the others hitherto known to occur in Somaliland, our 

 knowledge of the Pymionoti of Somaliland and the neighbouring countries is, 

 however, not yet finished. We have a specimen shot by Dr. Donaldson Smith 

 on June 16th, 1895, on the western shore of Lake Stephanie. It is an immature 

 bird, sex not determined. It is as small as P. dodsoni, the wing only measuring 

 78 mm. It i.s, however, not dodsoni, as the under tail-coverts are white, and the 

 back has no scaly apiienrance. I have little doubt that this is a new form, but the 

 .single specimen before me is young and in moult, moreover its sex is unknown ; 

 therefore I shall not create a new name for this bird. 



Prof Reichenow mentions a male from Ginir as an evident hybrid between 

 P. arsiuoe fichoamts and P. dodsoni. This bird is an adult male, and Prof. 

 Keichenow's surmise is very likely correct. 



Notes on the Palaearctic forms of the geuiis LANIUS. 



It has long been known that the genus Lanivs is not an easy one for those who 

 study its forms, and that the Grey Shrikes especially are one of the most difficult 

 groups in ornithology, though several works have been written about them. One of 

 these, the eighth volume of the Catalogue of Birds, however, is far fi-om satisfactory, 

 partly because its author was not an experienced systematist when he wrote it, partly 

 because the material at his disposal was far from being sufficient for such a task. 

 The other most noteworthy attempt to classify the Palaearctic Shrikes, that by 

 Professor Modest Bogdanow, is written in Eussian, and therefore unfortunately a 

 sealed book to the ornithologists of Western Europe; moreover, the material in 

 Kussian collections is only rich in specimens from the Russian possessions and 

 Central Asia, and the work, which is entitled Swohopidni Russkoi {i.e. Kussian 

 Shrikes), professes only to discuss the Shrikes of the Kussian Fauna ; nor is it up to 

 date, as it appeared 25 years ago, in 1881. It was therefore hailed with delight by 

 Ur. Kothschild, when an experienced systematical writer, Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, resolved 

 to write a new review of the genus Laniiis, and the editors of Novitates Zoologicae 

 accepted his article for Volume IX. of the Tring .lournal, where it appeared in 

 December 1902. 



Mr. Grant (p. 449) invited criticism, hoping "that in this way any mistakes 

 in the present paper may be corrected before the work ap) cars in the new edition 

 of the eighth volume of the Catalogue of Birds." 



Unfortunately there is ami)le occasion for criticism; but it is not so much a 

 number of mistakes that nmst be corrected — no work being without mistakes — .as 

 the entire plan and scope of Mr. Grant's article which is at fault. The work is 

 not what we should expect in the twentieth century, but it is written with the 

 perceptions of bygone ornithological ages. The author takes the bull by the horns, 

 and selects a striking character or two, by which he endeavours to distinguish 

 what he calls species, without regard to their distribution. Thus " L. deidhdlus," 

 according to Grant, occurs from Algiers to Turkestan; " L. jjallidiroslHs " from 

 Morocco to Mesopotamia and India ; while " L. excubilor " and " L. major " on the 

 one,"/., homeymi" and " /y. leucoplems" on the other hand, occupy about the 



