30 JMr. Robert Collett on 



VI. — On Laiiiiis excubitor and Lauius major. 

 By Robert Collett. 



In the eighth volume of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum/ Dr. Gadow has established, under the 

 genus Lanius, a number of species more or less closely allied 

 to L. excubitor, all of which are kept distinct with definite 

 specific characters, in part new or amended by the author. 

 But these "species'^ will, I have little doubt, ultimately 

 prove to represent partly mere climatic races, originating in 

 all directions from one typical species, and which, by various 

 transition-stages, are ultimately connected, partly mere indi- 

 vidual varieties, the origin of which, as a rule, cannot be 

 shown to have any definite relation with age, locality, or the 

 season of the year. 



In the following pages I propose to offer a few remarks 

 concerning the well-known form described in Gadow^s Cata- 

 logue (p. 239) under the name L. major, Pall., the right of 

 which to be regarded as a true species by the side of 

 L. excubitor has, in all probabihty, been treated of oftener 

 than any of the other forms, has been admitted by many, and 

 disputed, perhaps, by more. 



This question would seem to have occupied the attention 

 of ornithologists more especially since Cabanis, in 1873 

 (Journ, f. Orn, 1873, p. 75), recorded an individual killed 

 near the Wolga, in which he recognized Pallas's L. major, 

 and which, to the best of his knowledge, was the first 

 obtained in Europe. It is a well-known fact that, in the 

 following years, accounts appeared of other examples of the 

 said species or form, stating it to have been long known in 

 European museums, nay, to be even of frequent occurrence. 



Here, too (Norway and Denmark), the subject has been 

 treated of and brought under discussion. Whereas Dr. 

 Stejneger, in ' Archiv f . Mathematik og Naturvidenskab ' 

 for 1878 and 1880 (Christiania), keeps the two forms apart 

 as separate species, I have, in the volume of the same journal 

 for 1871), endeavoured to show that the presence or absence 

 of the white bases on the secondaries affords no manner of 



