GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 203 



be found in northern France throughout the year. Being of 

 essentially migrant habits it occurs in winter in southern 

 Europe ; but, as Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe have well 

 shewn, in an able paper on this bird and its allies (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 590), as well as in their ' Birds of 

 Europe,' its eastern and southern limits must at present be 

 considered undetermined, since two or three species so much 

 resembling it as to have been often mistaken for it seem to 

 replace it in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. 



The ornithologists last named, who have done much to 

 correct several errors made by writers of great repute with 

 respect to Lanlus excubltor and its kindred species, truly 

 state that it may be recognized from all its congeners by the 

 double white bar on the wing, caused by the basal half of 

 the secondaries as well as of the primaries being of that 

 colour. " This second bar," they continue, " is assumed 

 gradually, and is more fully developed in adult birds, though 

 traces of it can in most cases be discovered on a careful 

 examination of the bases of the secondary quills." The 

 non-appearance of this second white bar in certain specimens 

 has induced a belief, or at least a suspicion, among some 

 ornithologists in the occurrence in Great Britain of one of 

 the North-American Grey Shrikes the so-called L. excubi- 

 toroides of Swain son, now shewn by Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser to be identical with the well-known L. ludovicianus; 

 but it seems probable that, most of the Grey Shrikes taken 

 in this island being birds of the year, the second bar in 

 these specimens is not much developed and may be easily 

 overlooked. That such is the case may be gathered from 

 Mr. Kobert Gray's remark that nearly all the Scottish 

 examples which have come under his notice, while possessing 

 but one spot on the wing, have the under parts irregularly 

 barred or minutely freckled an unmistakable sign of youth 

 in this species, though observable at all ages in the larger 

 Grey Shrike of North America, L. borealis, and, according 

 to Pallas, in another species described by him under the 

 name of L. major; the existence of this last, which is said 

 to come from Siberia, has however been doubted. To the 



