1870.] ON EUROPEAN SHRIKES. 597 
agree with specimens from different parts of India. The differences 
supposed by various authors to be of specific value appear to us to 
be nothing more than those caused by the relative age of the bird: 
thus L. hemileucurus of Finsch and Hartl. is a very mature bird; 
Lanius pallens of Cassin (=L. dealbatus, Defil.) is the ordinary 
adult; and LZ. fallax of Finsch and Hartl. is the young. In the 
young bird there is no great extent of white on the forehead, scapu- 
lars, and rump, nor are the underparts of so pure a tint. Young 
birds generally have the underparts tinged with grey. 
We should not have ventured thus to unite species which have 
been reckoned distinct by some of the first ornithologists of the day, 
without sufficient material to warrant us in this determination ; 
and we may state that we have examined a numerous series of spe- 
cimens from all parts of Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, Abyssinia, Pales- 
tine, many parts of India, and even Amoor Land, from our own col- 
lections and those of the following noblemen and gentlemen who 
have placed their Shrikes at our disposal, viz. Lord Walden, Lord 
Lilford, Professor Newton, Rev. Dr. Tristram, Messrs. Sclater, Salvin 
and Godman, and Swinhoe, to whom we take this opportunity of re- 
turning our best thanks for their courtesy. 
From all the other Shrikes this species is preeminently distin- 
guishable by the thickset rough leg and white back. The only 
bird which at all approaches it is Lanius algeriensis, to which the 
young of L. lahtora bear a slight resemblance, but which could 
not for a moment be mistaken for it even in that stage of plumage, 
owing to the very dark tint of the head and back in Lantus alge- 
riensis. 
Mr. Swinhoe has very kindly lent us two specimens collected in 
the Amoor Land by Dr. Maack, the one adult, the other immature. 
The former, on comparison with very adult specimens of the so- 
called Lanius hemileucurus from Algeria, and old Lanius lahtora 
from the Punjab, is absolutely similar in every respect, while the 
young bird from the Amoor Land precisely agrees with a typical 
specimen of Lanius fallax from Abyssinia. Pére David, in his list 
of Peking birds (Nouv. Archiv. iii., Bull. p. 35) states that he has 
obtained a large Shrike, which he calls LZ. major, Pall., rather rarely 
in that neighbourhood ; and he also includes another species under 
the name of L. meridionalis, Temm., which, however, has been iden- 
tified by M. Jules Verreaux as the young of ZL. excubitor. We 
think that the birds here mentioned belong to the same species as 
the Amoor bird in Mr. Swinhoe’s collection. Pére David says that 
the old bird has a tinge of pink on the breast. We have also no- 
ticed this in Mr. Swinhoe’s specimen; but as it sometimes occurs 
slightly on adult birds from other localities, we do not affix any 
specific importance to the fact. 
Lanius lahtora has probably the most extended range of any of 
the Grey Shrikes, occurring along the southern shores of the Medi- 
terranean basin, through the countries bordering the Red Sea, Pa- 
lestine, and thence throughout the whole of India extending north- 
ward to the Amoor country. We have seen specimens from Central 
