MASKED SHRIKE. 153 



Germany southward to the Mediterranean basin and in winter 

 in tropical Africa. It is an occasional rare wanderer to Britain, 

 most of its visits being to south-eastern counties, but it has 

 reached Scotland on at least three occasions, two of these 

 being in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and certainly it has once 

 been taken in Ireland. As it nests so near our shores as 

 Normandy its visits on migration are not surprising. Its note 

 is a harsh kra^ kra (Secbohm), and the male has a short warble 

 in which, as in other shrikes, notes of various birds are intro- 

 duced. Its food and habits are similar to those of the family. 



The male has the crown and nape ferruginous ; the lores 

 are white, and the forehead, ear-coverts, sides of neck and 

 back black, the scapulars conspicuously white. There is a 

 white bar on the black wings. The rump is grey, shading to 

 white on the upper tail-coverts, and the under parts are white 

 tinged with buft' on breast and flanks. The bill is black, the 

 legs and irides brown. The female is duller and her upper 

 parts are more rufous ; the young bird is reddish, streaked and 

 mottled on the upper parts and barred on the under ; the bill 

 is yellowish brown and the legs pale brown. Length, yi ins. 

 Wing, 3*8 ins. Tarsus, '95 in. 



The inclusion of the sub-specific Corsican Woodchat, 

 L. s. badius Hartlaub, on the strength of a single example 

 said to have been obtained by a shepherd in Kent in 1909, is 

 curious when many birds just as likely to wander are rejected 

 on the supposition that they may have been artificially 

 introduced. 



Masked Shrike. La7iius nuhicus Licht. 



The occurrence of the Masked Shrike, a bird which breeds 

 in Persia, Asia Minor and Syria and winters in Arabia and 

 north-eastern Africa, in Kent in 1905 is extraordinary. On the 

 strength of this single example it is included in the British 



