RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 157 



south-eastern part of Durham. It has not, that I am aware, 

 been noticed in Scotland or its islands ; yet it visits Den- 

 mark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. From thence south- 

 ward, it is found in Germany, France, Spain, Provence, and 

 Italy. Specimens were sent by Keith Abbott, Esq. to the 

 Zoological Society from Trebizond ; it also inhabits Egypt 

 and North Africa, is included by Le Vaillant among the 

 birds of Senegal and the Cape of Good Hope, from which 

 latter country specimens have also been recently brought by 

 Dr. Smith. 



The adult male has a beak of shining black, with a con- 

 spicuous tooth and notch near the point of the upper mandi- 

 ble, which is curved ; the feathers at the base of the beak, 

 those of the lore, around the eye, and those forming the ear- 

 coverts, black ; the irides hazel brown ; all the upper part of 

 the head and the neck grey ; back and wing-coverts fine chesnut 

 red ; upper tail-coverts grey, tinged with red ; wing-primaries 

 dusky black, edged with red on the outer web ; secondaries 

 and tertials the same, but with broader red margins ; upper 

 surface of the tail-feathers with the proximal half white, the 

 distal half black, just tipped with white; the shafts black ; the 

 two -middle tail-feathers, which are the longest, are wholly 

 black except the tips, which are white ; the outer tail-feather 

 on each side about three-eighths of an inch shorter than the 

 others. The chin is nearly white ; all the under surface of 

 the body very pale red ; under tail-coverts white ; under sur- 

 face of the tail-feathers like the upper surface, but the colours 

 less pure ; legs, toes, and claws, black. The length of the 

 adult male is about seven inches and a half; length of wing 

 from the carpal joint to the end of the longest feather, three 

 inches and seven-eighths ; the first feather of the wing less 

 than half the length of the second, the second nearly as long 

 as the fourth, the third feather the longest in the wing. 



The adult female has the beak dark brown ; irides hazel, 



