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brown; legs blackish; iris dark brown. ‘Total length about 6:5-7 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3°65, 
tail 3:2, tarsus 0°95. 
Adult Female in spring (Chimkent, 5th April). Resembles the male in winter, but has the upper parts more 
of a rufous-isabelline tinge, the tail paler, the wings much paler and browner, and the underparts 
whiter. 
Young Male (Lower Oxus, 20th September). Resembles the adult female, but is duller, and has blackish 
crescentic marks on the breast and wing-coverts. 
Adult Male in winter (Etawah, 17th November). Crown, nape, back, and scapulars dull ashy brownish 
isabelline; rump and upper tail-coverts rufous; tail and wings as in the summer dress, but paler, the 
margins being warm isabelline, the primaries having also narrow light margins; lores whitish, the 
black streak smaller and only extending beyond the eye; sides of the head otherwise warm rufous 
isabelline ; underparts creamy white, washed with warm rufescent isabelline on the sides of the neck, 
the breast, and flanks; chin and centre of the abdomen pure white. 
CoMPARATIVELY speaking, the range of this, the only species of Rufous-tailed Shrike found within 
the Western Palearctic Region, is somewhat restricted ; for it is only found from the Ural range 
eastward into Mongolia and southward into North-east Africa, and there is in the well-known 
collection of Mr. Gatke a single specimen obtained in Heligoland, which Mr. Seebohm, who has 
carefully examined and described it, assures me is referable to this species. 
Mr. Sabandeff informs me that it was obtained by Meves in 1872 on the frontier between 
the Orenburg and Perm Governments, near the Loymonobsky mining works in the Keshtemsky 
Dacha; and Eversmann records it from the Kirghis steppes. Mr. Meves himself writes (J. f. Orn. 
1875, p. 432) that he “shot a young male, in autumn plumage, near Kirschtin, in the South-east 
Ural, on the 10th of August, but did not meet with any in adult plumage.” I do not find any 
record of the occurrence of this Shrike in Asia Minor; but Hemprich and Ehrenberg obtained it 
in Arabia, and it is not very uncommon in North-east Africa. Vierthaler and Brehm met with 
it at Sennaar on the Blue Nile late in November. Strickland received it from Kordofan; and 
Von Heuglin records it from Bahr el Abiad and Abyssinia. 
In Asia it is found at least as far as Mongolia, and possibly also occurs in Dauria. A spe- 
cimen from Bagdad is in the British Museum; and Dr. Severtzoff, who obtained a considerable 
series of specimens in Turkestan, at first subdivided the present species into several subspecies, 
referring the. darker specimens to Lanius phenicurus, Pall., and the lighter ones to Lanius 
isabellinus; but subsequently he described (/. c.) the darker and rufous-headed birds as new, 
under the name of Lanius phenicuroides, and referred, as before, the paler ones to Lanius 
isabellinus; but, as below stated, I cannot believe that there are two distinct species, and refer 
all to Lanius isabellinus. Referring to this Shrike, Dr. Severtzoff writes (Turk. Jevot. p. 145) as 
follows:—“'The mountain form of Lanius phenicurus (var. ruficeps) differs in being darker in 
colour; the back and scapulars in fresh plumage are pure brown slightly shaded with grey; but 
in spring these parts are greyer; the head is always brownish mixed with red, almost as rufous 
as the tail, which, with the rump, is dark reddish brown, with a chestnut tinge in fresh plumage. 
The lowland form (var. caniceps) has the upper parts greyer, being grey tinged with brown, 
