Lanius excubitor and Us Allies. 375 



to be met with^ which, it appears to me, precludes its being 

 treated as even a constant form or subspecies. The single 

 bar on the wing and the vermiculations on the underparts 

 are the characters claimed as distinguishing this form, but 

 neither of these is constant. Von Homeyer, after a careful 

 examination of sixty-three specimens, emphatically denies 

 that the single and double bars are distinctive characters, 

 and says (J. f. O. 1880, p. 151) ''die Spiegel-Theorie ganz 

 unhaltbar ist.'' In my own collection I find one adult 

 bird with the underparts unbarred and with one alar bar, 

 the second bar being just perceptible ; a second specimen, an 

 old female, with only one bar on the wing and with faint 

 vermiculations on the breast; a third and fourth, male and 

 female, with one alar bar, the underparts being strongly 

 barred or vermiculated ; a fifth and sixth, evidently old birds, 

 with the double alar bar very strongly developed, but with 

 the underparts clearly vermiculated, all six being specimens 

 obtained in Europe. 



I am indebted to Professor R. Collett for the loan of three 

 specimens obtained in Norway. The first of these, an adult 

 female obtained at Lister on the 18th April, 1890, has the 

 underparts unbarred, and but one alar bar, there being no 

 trace of a second bar. The second, an adult male obtained 

 at Vest Aker on the 18th April, 1886, has also the underparts 

 unbarred and one alar bar, but there is also a small second 

 alar bar, which is, however, concealed by the wing-coverts. 

 The third, a female bird of the year, obtained also at Vest 

 Aker on the 24th September, 1886, has the underparts clearly 

 vermiculated with pale dark transverse lines, and has one 

 alar bar and a second bar also concealed by the wing-coverts. 

 All three specimens have the rump and upper tail-coverts 

 grey, like the back, and in tone of colour agree closely 

 with typical Lanius excubitor, having no trace of brown in 

 the plumage. 



Professor BogdanoflF, in his excellent monograph of the 

 Shrikes ('Sorokoputui RusskoiFaunui,' p. 109), remarks that 

 '' the absence of the second alar patch cannot be considered 

 a specific character of L. major " and points out that in 



