( 417 ) 



that it is " Simillimns En. rufo, sed pectore cinnamomeo, speculo alari minore. 

 Hab. Sennaar." As the alar speculnm varies in extent, and the words " pectore 

 cinnamomeo,'" used by von Miiller, whose descriptions are generally not too pain- 

 fully exact, seems to refer to the underside as figured by von Erlanger, the name 

 pectoralis seems to be acceptable. The distribution of this form (the rutilans 

 of Koenig and Erlanger) is very imperl'ectly known. Besides breeding in North 

 Africa it probably occurs in West Africa, where all the three forms L. senator 

 senator, L. s. pectoralis, and L. s. badius may occur. 



(c) Lanius senator badius Hartl. 



Lanins badius, Hartlaub in Journ. f. Orn. 1854 p. 100; vShelley in Tbis 1875 

 p. 381 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. VIII. p. 285. 



Some West African birds are said to be distinguished from typical L. senator 

 by the want of the alar speculum, a more robust bill and a more intensely rufous 

 crown. There is not much in the more robust bill, but the crown seems to be 

 slightly darker, and the alar speculum is indeed al)sent in the two Gambaga birds 

 mentioned above, as well as in a number of West African skins in tlie British and 

 other museums. Recent authors seem to believe that this is a resident West 

 African form, but dates are required to find out whether this is the case or not. 

 The birds that I examined were all — as far as they had dates — shot in winter, and 

 it is very doubtful if these birds may not be winter guests in West Africa, like the 

 common L. senator. Besides the West African birds I have before me, in the Tring 

 Museum, an adult male shot at Porto Vecchio in Corsica, on 24 April, 1883, by 

 the late John Whitehead, which, like the West African birds, has no white 

 speculum to the first primaries I The crown of this bird is like that of German 

 specimens. I doubt that L. senator bad/as is a resident in West Africa, although, 

 with the exception of the one from Corsica, I have seen no specimen from any- 

 where but West Africa, not even in the large series of the Brehm collection. The 

 actual breeding home of badius, which, if anything more than an aberration, can 

 only be a subspecies, is not yet known, and fnrther investigations should be made. 

 It is also possible that L. s. badius is a regular subspecies in West Africa, while 

 the one from Corsica is a similar aberration, though it may be from " typical " 

 sewa^or-parents. 



(r/) Lanius senator paradoxus A. E. Brehm. 



Lanius paradoxus, A. E. Brehm, in Journ. f. Orn. 1854 p. 75 ; C. L. Brehm, 

 Vogelfnng, p. 84 ; L. coynatus, ibidem ; L. jardinii v. Miiller in Journ. f. Orn. 

 1855 ]). 45U. 



This form is described by Brehm and Miiller as having the central rectrices 

 pure white at base. I find this to be the case in all the specimens from North-east 

 Africa before me, viz., the types of L. paradoxus Brehm : i ad. 4. 4. 1850, 

 Wadi Haifa, J ad. 12. 1. 1851, Blue Nile, ? ad. 4. 4. 1850, Wadi Haifa, in one 

 S ad. Lado, 1. 2. 1^3 (Emin Pasha coll.). and one <? jun. Lad6, 30. 1. 1883 

 (Emiu Pasha coll.). In the large series of A. senator from other countries before 

 me 1 do not find this peculiarity, i.e. the white base to the central rectrices ; only 

 in one in the Brehm collection, unfortunately with only a bit of the lab^ left, I 

 find the outer web of the two central rectrices white for about 1 cm. In the 

 L. s. paradoxus the base of both webs of central rectrices is white for more than 



