240 THE SHRIKES 



GREAT GREY-SHRIKE [Lanius excubitor, Linnaeus. French, 

 pie-grieche ; German, Grauwurger ; Italian, averla maggiore]. 



1. Description. The great grey-shrike is to be distinguished by its pearl- 

 grey upper parts, relieved by black wings marked by a double or single white 

 wing-bar, and a black and white tail. (PL 69.) Length 9'5 in. [241 mm.]. The 

 adult male, as above indicated, has the upper parts of the plumage pearl-grey, set 

 off by a conspicuous black area extending from the lores over the ear-coverts, 

 and a white patch formed by the hindmost scapulars. The wings are also 

 black with the exception of the lesser coverts, which are grey and, when 

 extended, display a broad white bar across the bases of the remiges ; but in the 

 closed whig this bar is usually broken up to form two more or less conspicuous white 

 areas on the primaries and secondaries respectively. The innermost primaries and 

 the secondaries are tipped with white. The outermost tail feather is white, with 

 the exception of the base of the inner web, which is black, the black running some 

 distance upwards along the inner side of the shaft : in succeeding feathers this 

 black area increases, extending to both webs, and working down to the tip of the 

 feather till the central feathers have only white tips, while the two middle feathers 

 are wholly black. The under parts are dull white, often with a pinkish tinge on 

 the fore-breast. The female differs from the male in having the grey of the upper 

 parts less pure, and the under parts more or less conspicuously tipped with semi- 

 lunar lines of grey, only faintly traceable on the flanks. The juvenile plumage 

 differs from that of the adult in having the upper parts ash-brown, finely vermicu- 

 lated on the crown and hind-neck with grey, and faintly barred with grey on the 

 rump, scapulars, and upper tail-coverts. The lesser wing-coverts are slate coloured, 

 with brown fringes ; the major coverts black, tipped with brown, while the remiges 

 are tipped with buff-white. The lores and ear-coverts are dull black, the throat 

 white, barred with ash-brown ; the fore-neck, breast, and flanks are greyish buff 

 irregularly barred with grey, and the abdomen is white, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. This species has an extraordinarily wide distribution, 

 but is divided into numerous local forms, which inhabit the whole of Europe, 

 almost all Asia, Northern and Central Africa, and North America. The North 

 European form, L. excubitor excubitor, Linnaeus, is the one which occurs in the British 

 Isles. Its breeding range extends from Northern Scandinavia and Russia over 

 the greater part of the Continent, but in Spain and Portugal, as well as in S. Russia, 

 it is replaced by two other forms, and is absent from the Italian and Balkan 



