98 RARE VISITANTS. 



Order II. INSESSOEES. 



Fam. LANIID^. 



LESSEE GEET SHEIKE. Lanius minor, Gmelin. 

 Hab. Central and Southern Europe ; Africa. 



One, St. Mary's, Scilly, Nov. 1851 : Eodd, Zoologist, 1851, 



p. 3301, and 1867, p. 703. 

 One, Yarmouth, Norfolk, spring 1869 : Mathew, Zoologist, 



1870, p. 2060 ; Stevenson, torn. cit. p. 2139. 



Obs. The occurrence in Great Britain of a North- 

 American species of Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitoroides 

 of Swainson, has several times been reported or hinted 

 at [cf. Longmuir, The Naturalist, vol. ii. p. 239, and 

 vol. iii. p. 140 ; Smith, Zoologist, 1849, pp. 2495- 

 2567; Garth, op. cit. 1850, p. 2649; Tomes, op. cit. 

 1850, pp. 2650 & 2734, fig. ; and Gray, Birds of the 

 West of Scotland, p. 65). It would appear, how- 

 ever, from what has been published by Messrs. Dresser 

 and Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 590) and Prof Newton 

 (Yarrell's Hist. Brit. Birds, 4th ed. vol. i. p. 203) on 

 the changes of plumage which the Grey Shrikes un- 

 dergo, that the birds which were thought to be of 

 North- American origin were only the young of Lanius 

 excuhitor. 



