LANIUS EXCUBITOR. 239 



[§ 912. 0/^^.— Ollas-koski, 1862. 



Out of four brougbt with the nest by Isak Niwau. The nest and three 

 remaining eggs, which were of the ordinary appearance, I sent, 14th August, 

 1868, to the Museum at Prague. This egg is of remarkabl}' large size, measur- 

 ing 1-11 by -69 in.] 



LANIUS EXCUBITOE, Linn^us.^ 

 GKEAT GREY SHRIKE. 



§ 913. jSeveu.—'Naimakk^, 7 June, 1854. "J. W." 



Found by myself close to a colony of Fieldfares. I thought at 

 first that the nest was a Fieldfare's, till looking with my glass at the 

 bird sitting in it, I saw that it was a Shrike. I also saw that the 

 nest was [built] with white feathers shewing outside. I struck the 

 tree several times before the bird w^ould fly off. It settled near and 

 I shot it. The nest perhaps twelve feet up towards the top of the 

 birch tree : no leaves yet. It is made of twigs, feathers, and grass 

 interwoven ; feathers throughout — all white. 



§ 914. S'icT. — Above Naimakka, Enontekis Lappmark, 9 June, 

 1854. 



The nest found or at least seen in the tree by myself between 

 Naimakka and Mukka-uoma on the Finnish side. Like the last it 

 w^as near some Fieldfares' nests. It looked at a distance like a Field- 

 fare's, but on nearer approach the loose twigs and the white feathers 

 of the outside became very conspicuous, and there was no doubt as 



^ [For the convenience of those who beheve that L. major is a good species, I 

 have kept apart the specimens in the collection obtained in Lapland. Two skins 

 of the bird procured by Mr. "VVoUey in that country, and now in the Museum at 

 Norwich (Wolley Donation, Nos. 21 a and 21), are, I believe, those of which mention 

 is here made (§ 913 and § 910). Neither of them has any trace, that I can perceive, 

 of a second white patch on the wing, while the skin of a cock bird, shot by myself 

 on the river-bank just below Upper Muonioniska on the 31st of August, 1855, and 

 now in the Museum of the University of Cambridge, has a small and almost con- 

 cealed white patch at the base of the secondaries, shewing that both forms — if such 

 they be — occur in the Muonio valley ; but, after the evidence adduced by Prof. 

 Collett (Ibis, 1886, pp. 30-10), it would seem hard to maintain a valid distinction. 

 —Ed.] 



