MASKED 8HBIKE. 23 



deference to the former distinguished naturalist. The genius of the 

 late Prince of Canino, so fertile in adding to our list of names, called 

 it Leucometopon nuhicum, erecting a new genus upon the specific 

 name of Count Mvihle. Ornithologists must not therefore be con- 

 founded in finding the Lanius personatus of 1844, and the Leucometopon 

 nuhicum of Loche's list of African birds in 1858, the same. 



And yet it is, and was, and ever will be, a Butcher Bird, having 

 all the characters and habits of the well-marked genus Lanius. 



The Masked Shrike is an inhabitant of Greece, Syria, Nubia, Palestine, 

 Arabia, Abyssinia, and Egypt. We are indebted for all we know about 

 its habits to Lindermayer and Miihle, the Grecian ornithologists. 



According to the former it makes its nest in bushes, in uncultivated 

 ground, or on olive trees; it constructs a circular nest, com^Dosed of 

 young leaves outside, and of blades of grass and petals of flowers 

 inside. It lays seven or eight eggs, of a pale greenish grey, washed 

 with a yellowish tint and irregular spots of green black, mixed with 

 others of a green brown at the largest end. 



It arrives in Greece towards the end of April or beginning of May, 

 and leaves with its young towards the end of August. It inhabits the 

 extensive valleys of Greece, and sings very prettily. 



I copy the following from Von Heuglin's "Vogel Nord Ost Africas:" 

 — "The Nubian Shrike I consider (notwithstanding Brehm's opinion) 

 as a bird of passage in Egypt and the north of Nubia; further south 

 it may be a resident, but it is not to be found north of the tropical 

 circle in winter, and appears there generally in the beginning of 

 March. It also comes into warmer regions in Abyssinia as a passing 

 visitor in August and September. On the Nile it dwells principally 

 in the small acacia groves near pasture land. It is tolerably quiet and 

 peaceable, feeding especially on coleoptera, which it procures as often 

 out of the ground as from the catkins of the acacia hedges and cotton 

 fields. The song I never particularly noticed. Kriiper describes it as 

 rather like that of ^^ Hippolais olivetorum." 



Count Miihle thus describes the "Masked Shrike:" — "A beautiful 

 Butcher Bird, of which I have collected both young and old in Greece. 

 Length six inches and one sixth. It has a broad white stripe, which 

 extends across the forehead and over each eye; the scapulars clear 

 white; the whole upper part of the body, head, back, and tail blue 

 black; the wings brown black, with a clear white speck upon the tenth 

 primary; the secondaries and wing coverts whitish at the edges; breast, 

 red yellow; feathers on the abdomen bright rust-coloured. Tail feathers 

 white, with black shafts; first feather an inch shorter; second the 

 same, having its inner side with a narrow border of black; the third 



