26 EOOBEB SEBIKE. 



specimens from AndaUisia do not differ from those of Senegal. But 

 Schleo-cl, writing in 1844, observes that the specimens killed in Spain 

 and at the Cape of Good Hope are the same, while they differ both 

 in size and colour from those brought from Senegal. This is also 

 confirmed by Degland. But the Spanish specimens alluded to in 

 both these instances were those procured from the south of Spain. 



Since the publication of the first edition, Temminck's statement 

 that he had received specimens from Andalusia and south of Spain 

 has been simply denied, because modern naturalists do not seem to 

 have met with it in that country. Mr. Dresser also thinks the 

 statements of Degland and Gerbe, that it had occurred in the south 

 of France, "wide of the truth." There does not anywhere appear 

 anything like proof to supjDort these doubts. 



Mr. Dresser, however, introduces the bird, and so do I. Mr. 

 Dresser's wider scope allows him to take in part of North Africa, 

 but as I wish to keep within European limits, I will quote that 

 gentleman's letter from Major Irby, as well as the testimony of Lord 

 Lilford, as my reasons for not excluding this bird. 



" Lord Lilford believes that it sometimes visits the extreme south- 

 west of Spain; and Major Irby has given us the following note on 

 the subject: — 'The late M. Favier (whose M.SS. are now in my 

 possession) says that the Tschagra does cross over to Spain. All that 

 I can say is, that during my five years' residence I never saw one, 

 though it is a conspicuous bird, and one which I know well from 

 having seen and shot in Morocco. However, on showing a skin to 

 some bird-catchers at Tarifa, they professed to recognise it, and even 

 called it "Alcandon carnicero," a name I never heard applied to any 

 other Shrike [my italics.] I have since heard of one having been 

 procured uear Cadiz. . . .1 have little doubt that it does occasionally 

 occur near Tarifa, as it is not rare on the opposite coast of Tangier, 

 only nine miles distant.'" — (Dresser, "'Birds of Europe.") 



I copy the following from Canon Tristram's paper on the Birds of 

 North Africa, "Ibis," vol. ii., p. 150: — "I had just missed a snap 

 shot at a rabbit, when a strange scream from a matted lentisk bush 

 arrested me. ' Tschagra, tschagra, chagra, chrug,' most inharmoniously 

 repeated. I dismounted, approached, but could not see the hidden 

 vocalist, though I struck the bush several times. At length a stone 

 dislodged him, and I brought him down ere he had reached the next 

 clump. It was a fine male specimen of Telephonus cucuUatus, or 

 Tschagra, aptly so named, and was the first I had ever seen. He 

 is a beautiful bird in flight; his rich chesnut wings prettily contrasting 

 with his long expanded fan-like tail of jet black, with a broad white 



