598 BRITISH BIRDS. 



LANIUS EXCUBITOR. 

 GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 



(PLATE 11.) 



Lanius cinereus, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 141 (1760). 



Lanius excubitor, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 135 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Latham, Gmehn, Naumann, Temminck, Bonaparte, Deyland, Gerbe, Newton, 



Dresser, &c. 

 Collyrio excubitor (Linn.), Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 390 (1869). 



The Great Grey Shrike is a regular though somewhat rare autumn and 

 winter visitant to the British Islands. Although it has been observed 

 during summer, there is no reliable evidence to prove that it has ever 

 reared its young in this country ; and it has also been repeatedly confused 

 with Pallas's Grey Shrike, and even with the much commoner Red-backed 

 Shrike. In Scotland it is of occasional occurrence, more frequent in the 

 eastern and midland counties than in the western ; but it has never been 

 observed in the Hebrides. It is an occasional winter visitant to the Ork- 

 neys ; and a " Grey Shrike " was once observed by Saxby at Balta Sound 

 in the Shetlands. It has been obtained several times in Ireland ; and 

 Professor Newton states that a specimen was observed by Mr. J. Pell, the 

 falconer, in Iceland. 



The Great Grey Shrike breeds in the north of France, Belgium, Holland, 

 Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Scandinavia (up to about lat. 70), and 

 North Russia. In all these countries south of the Baltic it is found 

 throughout the year ; but the birds breeding north of the Baltic migrate 

 southwards in winter, at which season they are found in every part of 

 South Europe. On the Ural Mountains its range joins that of Pallas's 

 Grey Shrike (L. major); and in South Russia, in the valley of the Volga, its 

 range coalesces with that of another Siberian species, L. leucopterus, with 

 both of which the present species interbreeds. It is, however, a very inter- 

 esting fact that in Siberia, where these two latter species occur, they seem 

 to have become so widely differentiated as to have ceased to interbreed, 

 although both of them do so with the intermediate form L. excubitor. 



The evidence that the birds of Central Europe are resident, and that 

 they do not migrate southwards in winter, leaving their places to be taken 

 by birds from North Europe, is to be found in the fact that the examples 

 which cross the Bosphorus on migration consist of L. excubitor and L. major, 

 and of intermediate forms between them, whereas L. leucopterus and the 

 intermediate forms between it and L. excubitor, which are so common in 

 the valley of the Volga, do not appear to wander into Asia Minor. Besides 



