(416) 



not visible, although the seventh to tenth primaries have white bases to the outer 

 web. The adult S of this form has the scapulars, chest, sides of neck and sides of 

 the body washed with pale orange-bnff, and the tijis to the secondaries are bulf. 

 The wing measures 113 mm. There is also in the collection au adult 9 and a 

 young ? , shot at Gambaga on November 5th and 3uth. Both these birds have a 

 conspicuous white base to the first primaries, and 1 therefore believe that they 

 belong to the typical Enrojiean Lonius senator senator, which evidently migrates to 

 West Africa and stays there (luring tlie winter months. They are, however, rather 

 buff on the underside. It is evident that this form, which is supposed by ornitho- 

 logists to be a resident tropical form, can only be regarded as a subspecies of 

 Lanius senator. This species is very interesting on account of its various varieties 

 or subspecies, of which the following can be distinguished. 



(a) Lanius senator senator L. 



Large white base to all primaries, central rectrices brownish Mack to the base, 

 underside white, with very little rusty or cream-coloured wash. Breeds in Central 

 and Southern Europe, migrates to tropical Africa. 



With regard to its specific name this bird is one of the most unfortunate ones 

 in Euro[)e, but there is not a shadow of doubt that, according to modern rules of 

 nomenclature, its name is Lanius senator, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. X., v. 1. p. 94, 

 based on Albin's red-headed butcher-bird. 



{b) Lanius senator pectoralis v. Mull. 



This is probably the name that is to be used for the North African form, 

 generally known as Lanius rtitilans, or better Lanius senator nUilans (Hartlaub, 

 Joiirn. f. Orn. 1854, p. 100). Koenig {Journ. f. Orn. 1880, PI. 111.), figured and 

 described this form as a paler race of Lanius senator, and I recognised it as such iu 

 the Katalog Vogels. Frankfurt p. 90, note 156, but Erlanger (in Journ. f. Orn. 1899, 

 PI. n. and explanation) says that the pale plumage is merely due to abrasion and 

 old state of plumage, and this view is doubtless right, and that the North African 

 form is, in fresh plumage, at least as bright as typical L. senator, but distinguishable 

 by a rusty buff underside and upper tail-coverts. I have not sufficient material to 

 discuss this form, bitt I wish to call attention to the birds from Spain, and to those 

 shot in winter, before their return to Europe, in West Africa, which are often about 

 as rusty in colour as Erlanger's figure. German examples too are not all as white 

 below as Erlanger's figure, but often rusty buff on the sides of the body. The name 

 rutilans (Temminck, Man. d'Orn. v. IV. p. (iOl) is not characterised, and merely 

 based on Daulienton"s bad figure of Lanius senator from the Senegal, of which 

 Buffon himself says that it is the same as the European form ! As our European 

 birds migrate to West Africa, and the figure of the Senegambian bird is not more 

 buff below than Daubenton's figure of a European example, the name rutilans 

 cannot be accepted for the bird figured by Koenig and Erlanger, nor can it be used 

 for the so-called Lanius hadius, as it hah the bases of the first primaries white. 

 The subsequent names referring to the Red-headed Shrike up to 1855 are all 

 clearly synonyms of L. senator, several of them also being based on the " Pie-grieche 

 rousse du S^m'gaV of Bnff'on and Danbenton. In 1855 {.Journ. f. Orn. p. 450) 

 Baron von Miiller, however, describes an "Enneoctonus pectoralis,^' of which he says 



