172 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



eye-region and ear-coverts black ; small superciliary stripes white ; 

 scapulars pale French-gi-ey, very broadly tipped with white ; rump pale 

 French-grey, shading into white on the upper tail-coverts ; primaries 

 brownish-black on the terminal halt aiid pure white on the basal half, 

 forming a conspicuous white alar patch ; secondaries black, broadly tipped 

 with white, and having their inner webs also white ; edge of the wing white ; 

 the two central rectrices black, the adjoining pair black, slightly tipped with 

 ■white, the next pair still more tipped with white, and so on to the exterior 

 rectrices, which are pure white ; entire underparts white. 



Iris very dark brown ; bill and feet black. 



Total length 9 inches, wing 4-25, culmen -65, tarsus 115. 



Adult female similar to the male. 



Observations. — As in the case of L. algeriensis, there is a certain amount 

 of variation in plumage coloration and marking in this species also, the 

 palest examples being met with in the more southern parts of the Eegency, 

 the darkest in the central districts. Very pale specimens have a greater 

 proportion of white in the plumage, some even having the three outer pairs 

 of rectrices entirely white. 



The Pale Grey Shrike of the southern and semi-desert regions of 

 North Africa seems to have been described and christened by various 

 authors under different names. Of these the oldest available name 

 would appear to be that of L. elegans, given by Swainson and 

 Eichardson (Fauna Bor.-Am. ii, p. 122, 1831), with a description taken 

 from a specimen in the British Museum collection, which, although 

 purporting to come from America, appears to be identical with 

 examples from Nortli Africa, and probably really comes from that 

 country. 



The present species is the Grey Shrike couunonly found through- 

 out Central and Southern Tunisia, occupying the place there that 

 L. algeriensis does in the north of the Regency , the latter not 

 occurring, so far as I am aware, in its typical form anywhere south of 

 the Atlas Mountains. 



Eoughly speaking, the habitat of L. elegans in Tunisia may be 

 called the entire country south of this range, and more particularly, 

 perhaps, the so-called Sahel region, where vast plains occur, dotted 

 with patches of cultivated land and clumps of thorny bushes. Here 

 the Pallid Shrike is common, and cannot fail to attract attention, as it 

 sits perched conspicuously on the topmost branch of a wild jujube 

 {Zixiphus Ivtus), or some similar plant. The mimosa thickets of the 



