408 
2 
Young. Brown above, inclining to rufous on the head and back, transversely barred with ochre and black 
vermiculations ; scapularies and rump paler and more fulvous, the bars broader; wing-coverts black, 
broadly edged with rufous, and washed, especially on the least coverts, with ochre; tail brownish black, 
the middle feathers tipped with rufous, the others with fulvous white, especially on the outermost, 
which has a little black only on the inner web; underneath fulvous thickly barred over the whole body 
with narrow brown vermiculations; chin and under wing-coverts white; under tail-coverts rather deep 
fulvous. 
THRrovGHouT Central and Southern Europe the Woodchat Shrike is found during the summer 
season, but is more common in some parts than in others. It breeds regularly in Holland, 
Belgium, the Rhenish Provinces, Central and Southern Germany, Italy, Sicily, Southern France, 
Spain, and Portugal, as well as in Malta and Northern Africa, over which latter country it is 
generally distributed. Captain Shelley informs us that he found it “more abundant in Nubia 
than in Egypt; but it is tolerably plentiful in both countries.” In Palestine it is a regular 
summer migrant, remaining to breed. To the eastward it extends to the provinces of the Black 
Sea; and these appear to constitute its furthest range in this direction. Northwards it reaches 
Northern Germany and Pomerania; and Kjoerbolling cites one instance of its occurrence in 
Denmark, while in other parts of Scandinavia it has not yet been observed. It occasionally 
visits this country, and Yarrell gives several instances of its capture in the British Islands. We 
have received a letter from our friend Mr. J. Gatcombe, of Plymouth, relating to a Woodchat 
Shrike taken near that town. He writes:—‘“ A few years since, in the early autumn, I obtained 
a female Woodchat which had been caught by a bird-catcher in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. 
It appears to have come down after his call-birds. Its plumage was very poor, and much worn.” 
This specimen is now in the possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and appears to be a young 
bird of the year, as it retains some of the characters of the immature plumage. It is scarcely to 
be supposed that it can have been bred in England, but may possibly have been blown across 
from France. 
The winter home of the Woodchat appears to be Africa, though how far it extends its range 
southward has yet to be ascertained. Levaillant states that it occurs in South Africa; but we 
doubt the accuracy of this assertion, as no one has since met with it, and it has never fallen 
under the notice of Mr. Layard, who has so carefully investgated the avifauna of that region. 
In Western Africa it certainly is not rare, for Sharpe’s collection contains several specimens from 
the river Gambia. Ornithologists have been wont to consider the bird from Senegal to be 
specifically distinct ; and Temminck called a Shrike from this locality Lanius rutilans, by which 
name Woodchat Shrikes from the Gambia are generally known. On critically examining the 
descriptions given by Temminck, however, we find that he had not a specimen before him, but 
founded his L. rutilans on the Pie-Griéche rousse de Sénégal of Buffon (Pl. Enl. 477. fig. 2). 
A glance at this plate shows that the bird figured is not a Woodchat ; and it does not look 
like an African Shrike at all. There is just the chance of there being such a species in Senegal ; 
but we confess we have very little confidence in Buffon’s species, and it looks much more like one 
of the Rufous-tailed Shrikes of the subgenus Otomela. We are inclined to believe that on the 
western side of the African continent the Woodchat Shrike wanders as far as the Gold Coast in 
winter; for Dr. Hartlaub has examined a specimen from this locality which he was at first 
