1885.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 95 



It will be seen that the locality is not inscribed on the stand, 

 and that now, at least, the specimen is not " labeled as having 

 been collected in California." 



The U. S. National Museum possesses a very rich collection of 

 North American Shrikes, and the Old World forms are also 

 tolerably well represented, partly due to the incorporation of my 

 own collection of Shrikes, of which formerly I made a specialty. 

 I have compared the type of L. robustus with these, the result 

 being as follows : — 



The statement of Professor Baird, that it is "very decidedly 

 different from any of the recognized North American species," 

 is eminently confirmed. The material in the Museum has been 

 doubled many times during the twent} r years since he wrote the 

 above, but still the type remains unique in its peculiar characters. 

 I need not repeat here his excellent description, but think it 

 proper to sum up the most diagnostic features of the bird, mainly 

 to counteract any erroneous impression that might arise, caused 

 by the quotation above from Dr. Coues' " Key," in which it is 

 asserted " that the single specimen represents an individual pecu- 

 liarity in the size of the bill." Lanius robustus is not only 

 remarkable for its large bill, but also for its general dark color, 

 total absence of light superciliary stripe, the ashy wash of the 

 lower parts, the gray loral spot, the restriction of the white on 

 the tail-feathers, particularly at the base, and the peculiar distri- 

 bution of black and white on the secondaries, so well illustrated 

 by the figure in Cooper and Baird 's Californian Ornithology 

 quoted above. 



Of all the Old World members of the restricted subgenus 

 Lanius, the present bird only needs comparison with a few dark- 

 colored species. In many respects it resembles L. algeriensis 

 Less., particularly in the shade of the gray on the back, the 

 absence of a white superciliary stripe, the ashy under surface ; 

 but the wing speculum is much larger, the secondaries differently 

 colored, and the tail with less white, not to speak of the difference 

 in the size of the bill. In the latter respect our bird agrees 

 rather closely with a specimen of a Lanius collected by H. B. 

 Tristram at Gennesareth, March, 9, 1864, but it is darker both 

 above and beneath, and the pattern of secondaries and tail is 

 different. This specimen from Palestine seems referable to the 

 form which Gadow says is " intermediate between L. fallax and 



