LANIUS POMERANUS. 89 



Male. Scapulars dull brick-red, uniform with the back ; crown, hind 

 neck, and rump grey ; chin white ; breast with roseate tinge. 



Female. Above brownish grey ; tail brownish red. Underparts white ; 

 sides of neck, breast, and flanks barred with brown. 



Young. Above reddish brown ; below pale brown ; above and below 

 barred with blackish brown. Length 7^-8 inches. 



88. Lanius pomeranus, Sparrman. The "Woodchat Shrike. 



Moorish. Aisha el kra (Favier) *. Spanish. Alcaudon. 



As common in Morocco as in Andalucia, the Woodchat arrives 

 in March and April, leaving in August and September. The 

 first arrival noticed at Gibraltar in 1868 was on the 3rd of April, 

 in 1869 on the 3rd of April, in 1870 on the 29th of March, in 

 1894 on the 28th of March ; the passage ceases about the 20th 

 of April. The latest seen was on the 14th of October, 1871 ; in 

 1869 I observed them returning south on the 26th of August. 



The Woodcliat is one of the most abundant and conspicuous 

 birds in spring on both sides of the Straits. Very tame and 

 confiding, unlike their big cousins L. meridionalis and L. alye- 

 riensis ; their pied appearance and the bright chestnut-coloured 

 head of the adult males cause them to be noticed even by the 

 most unobservant. They are to be seen in every direction in 

 woods and on plains, perched on tops of trees, bushes, aloes, and 

 tall plants, making their larders on the spikes of the aloes, and 

 impaling on the thorns, beetles, bees, and all kinds of insects, 

 and are extremely mischievous among bees. 



The nest, which usually contains eggs by the 10th of May, 

 is a small edition of that of L. meridionalis, but more covered 

 outside with the greyish-white flowers and stalks of Cudweed 

 (Gnaphalium luteo-album), and usually placed low down in trees. 



* " Kra " is a kind of ringworm, and no doubt given as a name to the Woodchat 

 owing to the supposed resemblance the chestnut head of the males has to the 

 head of a Moor afflicted with this disorder, which is common in Tangier, and 

 causes a rusty mangy baldness. "Aisha " is a female name : why applied to pied 

 birds ? 



