SOUTHERN GREAT GREY SHRIKE. I49 



When disturbed its alarm note is a harsh Jay-hke skake,skake^ 

 and its call is described as t}-uii. The pleasant warbling song 

 has been heard in England so early as December, for the bird, 

 which usually arrives in October and November, sometimes 

 remains to winter with us ; it has been met with in all months 

 from August until April. The assertion that it has remained to 

 breed, or that it was once a regular nesting species, has never 

 been substantiated. As a rule the bird is solitary, and when 

 several reach our shores at the same time they speedily spread, 

 each mapping out its hunting ground and reducing the numbers 

 of the immigrants with which it has travelled. 



The general colour of the upper parts is pearl-grey ; a 

 stripe above the eye and the cheeks and chin are white, and a 

 deep black streak extends from the forehead, through the eye, 

 to the ear-coverts. The scapulars are white and the wings 

 black and white, with one or two white bars. The under parts 

 are white, slightly tinged with grey. The bill is nearly black, 

 pale at the base of the under mandible ; the legs are blackish, 

 the irides dark brown. In the female the under parts are 

 greyer, and are faintly barred with greyish brown. Young birds 

 are greyish brown, with more or less distinct bars on the upper, 

 and conspicuous ones on the under parts. Length, 9'5 ins. 

 Wing, 4-3 ins. Tarsus, 1 in. 



Southern Great Grey Shrike. Lanms meridionalis 

 Temm. 



The Southern Great Grey Shrike, by some considered a sub- 

 species of exciibitor^ occurs in the Iberian Peninsula and 

 southern France ; it is included as British on the strength of a 

 single example taken in Sussex in 1911. It is darker on the 

 back and pinker on the breast than the typical excubitor, and 

 has a broader white line above the eye. Length, 9*8 ins. 

 Wing, 4*1 ins. Tarsus, 1*15 ins. 



