1870.] ON EUROPEAN SHRIKES. 591 
the two outermost being almost entirely white; cheeks aud the 
whole of the under surface of the body pure white ; legs slender, 
dark brownish black ; bill black. 
Female. Similar to the male, but the under parts greyish and 
exhibiting slight traces of transverse vermiculations. 
Young. Much duller in plumage, the black parts being mixed with 
brown, the under parts dirty greyish white ; bill and feet brown. 
This Shrike appears to vary very much according to age, the 
wing-coverts, forebead, and rump being of a much purer white in 
some specimens. The slender legs and double bar on the wing render 
it easily distinguishable from L. lahtora, which very old and pallid 
specimens at a first glance somewhat resemble. From Lanius 
borealis it is distinguishable by the absence of vermiculatious on the 
breast and the double bar on the wing. The latter character, 
indeed, seems to be peculiar to Lanius excubitor alone; but we would 
remark that it is only gradually assumed, and, though very distinct 
in the adult bird, is only feebly developed and sometimes hidden by 
the greater wing-coverts in young specimens. It can, however, be 
almost always discovered on close examination. 
The range of the present species extends over the northern and 
central portions of the Palearctic Region as far north as the birch and 
willow are found. In the south of Europe it is only a winter 
migrant. To the eastward its range is yet undetermined ; for though 
the Siberian travellers record it as being met with throughout Siberia, 
we find that the specimens collected on the Amoor and marked 
Lanius excubitor by the Russian naturalists are L. lahtora, as here- 
after mentioned. The bird which occurs in Central Asia is also of 
the latter species. 
We have already stated that L. excubitor is migratory in the South 
of Europe. Dr. von Heuglin states that it is a rare bird in North- 
eastern Africa, but he has only observed it in the winter in Egypt, and 
killed it in Arabia Petraea. We fully endorse his opinion, subsequently 
expressed, that it is probable that many of the observations as to the 
occurrence of the Great Grey Shrike in North-eastern Africa, made 
by Brehm, Riippell, and Hemprich and Ehrenberg, refer to some of 
the allied species. We are inclined to question Mr. C. W. Wyatt’s 
agsertion (‘ Ibis,’ 1870, p. 12) that Lanius excubitor is common in 
the Sinaitic peninsula; but as so good an observer as Dr. von 
Heuglin expressly states that he has himself shot it in that locality, 
we feel bound to admit its range so far south. We are, however, 
sceptical enough to be very anxious to see a specimen of true L. 
excubitor from the shores of the Mediterranean or North-eastern 
Africa, 
2. LANIUS BOREALIS. 
Lanius borealis, Vieill. Ois. de Y Amér. Sept. pl. 50 (1807); 
Swains. Faun. Bor.-Am., Birds, p. 111, pl. xxxiii. (1831); Aud. 
Syn. p. 157 (1839); id. B. of A. iv. p. 130 (1839) ; Gray Gen. of 
B. i. p. 294 (1847) ; Cass. Proc. Phil. Acad. 1857, p. 212; Jones, 
Nat. Hist. of Berm. p. 51 (1857); Max. Journ. f. Orn. 1858, p. 190. 
