THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 219 



54. Cream-Coloured Shrike [ISABELLFARBIGER WURGER]. 

 LANIUS ISABELLINUS, Ehrenberg. 



Isabelline Shrike. Dresser, iii. 413. 



Lanius phcenicurus. Sewertzoff, Fauna of Turkestan, Ibis, 1876, 185-187. 



Specimens in the Berlin Museum belonging to this species are : L. 

 speculigerus, Taczanowsky ; L. phcenicur aides, Sewertzoff, Turkestan ; 

 L. arenarius, Blyth, Darjeeling. 



On the 25th of October 1854, I obtained here a young male 

 bird of the year of this interesting species. It was caught in the 

 throstle-bush. It is the only example of this species which has 

 ever been observed here, and, I believe, the only one which has ever 

 been met with in Europe. 



H. Blasius,on his first visit to Heligoland in 1858, regarded this 

 specimen as a young example of L. phoenicurus, and accordingly 

 noted that species in the supplements to Naumann's work, vol. 

 xiii. p. 39. L. isabellinus must therefore be substituted in its 

 place, and L. phoenicurus, unless it has since been met with any- 

 where in Europe, must be struck out of the list of European birds. 



The two species are easily distinguishable. Judging from the 

 material at my command, the relations of the various parts of the 

 body are very different. The eggs of the two species are of equal 

 size, and one would therefore conclude that the birds would stand 

 in the same relation to each other; while, however, in L. phoenicurus 

 the wings and tail are of nearly the same length, the former measur- 

 ing 3'37 ins. (86 mm.), the latter 3'32 ins. (85 mm.), in L. isabel- 

 linus the tail only measures 3'15 ins. (80 mm.), but the wings 3'66 

 ins. (93 mm.). 



Besides, in the former species, the feathers of the tail are 

 strikingly narrow, and the whole part much rounded off; its outer- 

 most pair of feathers is 0'75 in. (19 mm.) and the next pair 0*32 in. 

 (8 mm.), shorter than the middle pair. In the latter species, the 

 tail-feathers are very broad, and nearly all of the same length, 

 except the outermost pair, which are only O g 32 in. (8 mm.) shorter 

 than the rest. 



L. isabellinus, moreover, displays a white speculum on the roots 

 of the primaries, which is not the case in L. phoenicurus. Further, 

 the male of the latter species has all its upper parts, and especially 

 the crown of the head, the rump, and the upper tail-coverts, 

 of an intense ferruginous colour (rostroth) ; while its lower parts are 

 of a very vivid and rich buff colour (rostgelb). In L. isabellinus, on 

 the other hand, as one may gather from the name, the upper parts 

 are of a creamy -jbrownish or isabelline grey (isabell-brdunlichgrau) ; 



