398 Letters, Announcements, &^c. 



The bird is still iu immature plumage ; and until after its 

 next moult it will, I think, be impossible to determine (ex- 

 cept by dissection in case of death) whether it is a male of 

 Falco jieregrinus or a female of either F. barbarus or F. minor ; 

 but 1 am decidedly of opinion that it is not an example of 

 F. peregrinator, as that species, when in immature dress, al- 

 ways has, so far as I have observed, the longitudinal dark 

 marks on the breast and abdomen narrower than they are in 

 this specimen, and the paler interspaces decidedly tinged with 

 rufous. I am, &c., 



J. H. GURNEY. 



Sirs, — In the last number of 'The Ibis' {antea, p. 164) 

 Mr. Seebohm gives a detailed description of the rufous-tailed 

 Shrike, which has been shot on Heligoland. After having 

 examined the specimen and collated with other skins, he says, 

 '' I submit that the Heligoland bird is Lanius isabellinus, 

 Hempr. & Ehr. (1828), = i>. arenarius, Blyth (1846), = L. 

 phoenicuroides, Sev. {1876)." 



I have not had the pleasure of examining this Heligoland 

 Shrike ; but I have received, by the kindness of Mr. Gaetke, 

 a longer description, which I have published (Journ. fiir Or- 

 nithologie, 1875), and from which I suppose the bird not to 

 be Lanius phoenicurus, Pall., but a nearly allied species, pro- 

 bably L. phoenicuroides of Severtzoif. In identifying the 

 Heligoland Shrike with L. isabellinus, Hempr. & Ehr., Mr. 

 Seebohm is perhaps right; but in identifying this last-named 

 bird with L. phoenicuroides, Sev., he is not right. These two 

 Shrikes are nearly allied, but not the same. In a little ac- 

 count of the genus Otomela, Bp. (Journ. fiir Ornithologie, 

 1875), I have referred to the specific differences between 

 these rufous-tailed Shrikes. The examination of the large 

 series of L. isabellinus and L. phoenicuroides which Mr. Mo- 

 dest Bogdanow has collected in Turkestan has confirmed my 

 opinion. 



I am, &c., 



H. SCHALOW. 



Berlin, N., Nieder-Schonhausen, 

 6th June, 1877. 



