RED-BACKED SITH1KE. 21 1 



Gray, so long ago as 1817; when a pair were shot near 

 Hawick. Mr. Arbuthnot in 1833, seems, however, to have 

 been the first to publish the fact of the occurrence of this 

 species in the northern kingdom; since which time Mr. 

 Sinclair, Prof. Duns, Dr. Gordon, Lord Haddington and 

 Mr. Harvie Brown have recorded similar observations, 

 shewing that, during the season of its migration, it is an 

 occasional visitor to the eastern parts of Scotland, while in a 

 few instances it has been seen in pairs and may possibly 

 have bred there. Indeed there is reason to infer that it has 

 done so even in the Shetlands ; for Dr. Saxby, who in 1866 

 shot an example in Unst, early in June, 1870, observed in the 

 same island a female of this species accompanied by three 

 young birds, one of which frequented a garden there for 

 nearly three weeks. This Shrike occurs in summer through- 

 out the continent of Europe excepting the Iberian peninsula, 

 ranging as high as lat. 64 N., and is found in the tempe- 

 rate parts of Siberia. De Filippi observed it everywhere in 

 Persia, and thence it may be traced across Palestine to Africa, 

 where, though not hitherto found to the northward of the 

 Great Desert or of Angola on the west coast, it is very widely 

 distributed, for ascending the valley of the Nile it occurs on 

 both sides of the southern part of that continent as far as the 

 confines of the Cape Colony, and, curiously enough, breeds 

 there. 



The adult male has the beak black, the feathers of the 

 forehead and lore, around the eye, and those forming the 

 ear-coverts, black ; the irides hazel-brown ; all the upper 

 part of the head and the neck grey ; back and wing-coverts 

 fine chestnut-red ; upper ' tail-coverts grey, tinged with red ; 

 primaries dusky black, edged with red on the outer web ; 

 secondaries and tertials the same, but with broader red 

 margins ; tail-feathers with the proximal half white, the 

 distal half black, just tipped with white ; the shafts black ; 

 the two middle tail-feathers, which are longest, are wholly 

 black except the tips, which are white ; the outer tail-feather 

 on each side about three-eighths of an inch shorter than the 

 others. The chin is nearly white ; all the under surface of 



