114 BIEDS OP EGYPT. 



Fam. LANIID^. 



70. Lanitjs excubitor, Linn. Great Grey Shrike. 



Dr. von Heuglin (Oni. N. 0. Afr. p. 478) mentions having 

 shot this bird himself in Egjrpt in the winter. This is the 

 only evidence we have of its occurrence in that country. 

 Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe, in an able notice on L. excubitor 

 and its allies (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 591), observe, in reference to 

 the above statement of Von Heuglin, " We are, however, 

 sceptical enough to be very anxious to see a specimen of true 

 L. excubitor from the shores of the Mediterranean or North- 

 eastern Africa." 



Hemprich and Ehrenberg mention it as found throughout 

 Egypt and Nubia; and Riippell calls it plentiful in Egypt. 

 These latter observations, no doubt, refer to some of the 

 allied species, as Von Heuglin and Messrs. Dresser and 

 Sharpe are aU inclined to believe. 



Above pearl-grey ; forehead and over the eye white ; lores, 

 under the eye, and ear-coverts black ; scapulars grey, edged 

 with white ; wings black, primaries and outermost secondaries 

 white at the base, thus forming a double bar on the wing ; 

 primaries and secondaries tipped with white ; tail black, with 

 the exception of the whole of the two outer feathers and the 

 ends of all but the two centre ones, which are white ; under 

 surface of the body white, with occasionally a pink blush ; 

 legs and beak black ; irides brown. 



The sexes are alike in plumage. 



Entire length 9' 5 inches; ciUmen 0"7 ; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 4"4 ; tarsus TO. 



Fig. Sharpe and Dresser, B. of Eur. part ii. 



