266 FISCUS EXCUBITORIUS 
land appear to be somewhat intermediate between the typical Abyssinian 
bird and those from the Nile valley. The amount of black on the outer tail- 
feathers averages about 1:0. Wing 50 inches, tail 55. N. of Lake 
Nyasa [gd], —. 9. 04 (A. Sharpe). 
The Grey-backed Fiscal Shrike ranges over Hast Africa 
from Abyssinia and the Upper White Nile to the Nyasa- 
Tanganyika plateau. It varies a good deal in size, and it is 
possible to distinguish three races which may be considered 
as subspecies. There is a very good series in the British 
Museum, viz. :— 
Lanius excubitorius excubitorius.—A byssinia—Billin, on 
the Hawash River, and Duhome, Aroussa country (Degen), 
Philwaka (Lovat), Daimbi, in Shoa (Antinori), Lake Addo, 
in Shoa (Turin Mus.). 
Lanius excubitorius princeps.—Kaka and Fashoda, on the 
White Nile (Hawker), Baro River (Zaphiro), Bahr el Ghazal 
(Bohndorff), Kawa Baja, Lake Chad district (B. Alexander), 
Lado (Kmin), Magois country, near L. Rudolf (D. Smith), 
Baringo and Nakuro, in British East Africa (Delamere) ; 
Kibera, Butiaba (Jackson), and Ankole (Johnston), in 
Uganda; Ruwenzori (Ruwenzori Exped.). 
Lanius excubitorius bohm. — North of Lake Nyasa 
(Sharpe). 
Mr. Butler writes: “I first met with this: Shrike at Kaka 
in February, 1902. Then it was comparatively scarce, but in 
March I found it very abundant in the ‘ambatch’ cover, 
along the Bahr el Ghazal at the Jur River. I have seen it 
nowhere else. I do not think that this Shrike can be correctly 
retained in the genus Lanius. Its habits are so very different. 
It is highly gregarious, being almost always in parties, and 
these are not pairs of old birds accompanied by their last 
brood, but companies of as many as twelve or fifteen indi- 
viduals. I have seen them dancing about all over a tree, 
