237 



According to Kriiper it is double brooded, laying 6 — 7 eggs in the Kg?'- 

 first brood, and -4 — 5, sometimes only 3, in the second. A clutch of 8 

 eggs is said to have been taken in Greece. They are very characteristic 

 of the species, although Shrike-like in type, having the ground colour 

 creamy buff (in rare instances very pale, almost white) and a zone of 

 umber brown blotches or spots and purplish grey underlying shell marks 

 round the big end. They vary less than most Shrikes' eggs, but a set 

 from Palestine has a distinctly reddish ground (Brit. Mus.), and both 

 markings and ground colour differ in intensity. 



In Palestine eggs may be found from April 10 onwards: Witherby Breeding 

 found fresh eggs in Persia on April 20, while Kriiper gives the average 

 date for the first brood near Smyrna as mid-May; and the second in June, 

 but some birds begin to lay at the end of April and eggs have been 

 taken as late as July 4. 



Average of 100 eggs from Palestine and Asia Minor measured Measure- 

 by the writer, 20.73x15.73 mm.. Max. 23 x 16.5 and 22x16.6, ""'""' 

 Min. 19 X 15.2 and 20.5 X 14.4. 



107. Red backed Shrike, Lanius collurio L. 



Plate 25, fig. 1—17 (Germany). 



Eggs: Thienemann, Fortpfl. Tab. XXXI, fig. 9, a— f. Hewitson, 

 I Ed. I, pi. II, fig. 1—3; II Ed. I, pi. XV, fig. 3, 4; III Ed. I, pi. XX, 

 fig. 3, 4. Baedeker, Tab. 52, fig. 6. Taczanowski, Tab. XL, fig. 1, 2. 

 Seebohm, Br. Birds, pi. 11; id. Col. Fig. pi. 54. Frohawk, Br. Birds, 

 I, pi. Ill, fig. 104—108. Dresser, pi. — , fig. 1—5. Krause, pi. — , 

 fig. 1—36. Nest: O. Lee, IV, p. 16. 



British Local Names: Butcher Bird, Pope, Nine killer, Flusher. 

 Welsh: Y cigydd cefn goch. 



Foreign Names: Bohemia: Tuhyk obecny. Denmark: Tornskade. 

 Finland: Pienempi lepinkciinen. France: Ecorclieur. Germany: Rot- 

 rilckiger Wiirger. Greece: Aetomdchos. Holland: Graauiv Klaauwier. 

 Hungary: Tovisszuro gebics. Italy: Averla piccola. Norway: Bodrygget 

 Tornskade. Poland: Dzierzha cierniokret. Russia: Sorokoput Ivolan. 

 Sweden: Brunryggad Tdrnskata. 



Lanius collurio L. Newton, ed. Yarrell, I, p. 209. Dresser, Birds of 

 Europe, III, p. 399; id. Man. Pal. Birds, p. 237. Saunders, Man. p. 151. 

 Hartert, Vog. Pal. Fauna, p. 439. 



Breeding Range: Great Britain, Europe from 64" N. to the 

 Cantabrian Mts., Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily (?), and the N. shores of the 

 Mediterranean. [Also Asia Minor and N. Palestine to N. Persia.] 



