374 Mr. H. E. Dresser on 



3. H. barbozce, Hartl. 1. c. p. 329. 

 Hab. Benguela. 



4. H. nehrkorni, Hartl. 

 Hab. Accra, Gold Coast. 



5. //. australis, Shell.; Hartl. 1. c. p. 331. 

 Hab. UmvuK River, S.E. Africa. 



As regards this species, of which I have not yet examined 

 specimens, and which is, as yet, known from a single example 

 only, I may remark that it is apparently a less typical 

 form. 



The type specimen of our new species, Hyliota nehrkorni, 

 from which the figure is taken, is in the splendid collection 

 of Amtsrath Nehrkorn, of Riddagshausen, near Brunswick. 



XXXI. — Remarks on Lanius excubitor and its Allies. 

 By H. E. Dresser, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



After an examination of the large series of Great Grey 

 Shrikes in the British Museum and in the collection of 

 Mr. Seebohm, as well as of twenty-one skins in my own col- 

 lection, I quite agree with the late E. von Homeyer and Pro- 

 fessor R. Collett that there is but one species of Great Grey 

 Shrike in Europe, that the true Lanius major of Pallas does 

 not occur here, and that the European specimens recorded 

 as belonging to that species are merely individual varieties of 

 Lanins excubitor. This view was also held by the late Dr. 

 Taczauowski, who writes (Faun. Orn. Sib. Orient, p. 489) : — 

 " It appears to us that most of these birds found accidentally 

 in Europe are but varieties of Lanius excubitor having the 

 alar patch less developed, that is to say single.^' 



Professor Bogdanoff sej)arates these varieties from the 

 Siberian form and refers them to a subspecies which he calls 

 Lanius borealis europaeus. But there is no doubt that this 

 so-called subspecies occurs in the same localities where 

 Lanius excubitor is found and freely interbreeds with that 

 specieSj and that every gradation between the two forms is 



