158 



Young Male (near Lake Korogol, September 5th) . Upper parts generally sandy buff, darker on the crown 

 and nape, and more rufescent on the lower back and scapulars ; rump and upper tail-coverts warm 

 rufescent buff, the latter paler, almost buffy white, irregularly barred with dull blackish ; wings 

 blackish brown, the primaries white at the base, showing a small wing-patch when the wing is 

 extended; quills margined with warm buffy white, the inner secondaries broadly tipped with that 

 colour ; larger and median wing-coverts margined with warm rufous buff, lesser coverts sandy buff ; 

 outer rectrix on each side white on the outer web and on the terminal half of the inner web, the next 

 two with the black extending much further down, the remaining tail-feathers black tipped with warm 

 buff; lores and a patch through the eye and extending on to the ear-coverts much darker than the rest 

 of the head ; chin, throat, and underparts generally buffy white, transversely closely vermiculated with 

 blackish brown ; under tail-coverts creamy buff or buffy white, indistinctly transversely vermiculated : 

 bill dull horn-brown; legs black; iris brown. Total length about 8 - 5 inches, culmen 08, wing T65, 

 tail 4 - 6, tarsus 1*15. 



Nestling (Irtisch : fide Menzbier, Ibis, 1894, p. 379). General colour above and beneath brownish grey, back 

 brownish ; scapulars slightly ferruginous ; upper tail-coverts ferruginous, the under ones ochraceous ; 

 all parts but the back with transverse vermiculations, less developed on the chin and crown of the head ; 

 tail-feathers brownish black, with white as in the adult, but less developed and washed with very pale 

 rufous ; quills dirty blackish brown ; basal portion of the primaries rufous white, producing a small 

 alar speculum ; secondaries edged on the tips with pale ferruginous ; upper wing-coverts blackish brown, 

 edged with ferruginous ; under wing-coverts and axillaries blackish brown, with ferruginous edges on 

 the lesser ones ; a patch before the eye and ear-coverts blackish brown : bill horn-brown ; feet brown. 



The present species is, excepting perhaps Lanius grimmi, the rarest of the Grey Shrikes, and is 

 as yet comparatively but little known. So far as I can ascertain, it inhabits Turkestan, and has 

 occurred as far west as Archangel, and is replaced in Mongolia by a very closely allied, if separable, 

 form, Lanius mollis of Eversmann ; and it is only quite recently that Professor Menzbier has 

 separated the eastern from the western form, both having hitherto been united under the name 

 Lanius mollis. 



Mr. Seebohm states (Ibis, 1882, p. 374) that in the Henke collection there is a very fine 

 specimen which is of this western form, obtained near Archangel in the autumn ; it was obtained 

 by Karelin on the Lepsa River and the Irtisch, in Turkestan by Severtzoff and Col. Pijevalski, 

 and by Mr. Wilkins (Ibis, 1885, p. 356) near Ulugchat on the Upper Tarim, Kashgaria, on the 

 12 th October. 



The eastern form has been obtained in the Altai by Romanoff near Khobdo, in Mongolia 

 by Beresoffsky, at Nov. Ssaissan by Slovzoff, and in the Chami district by the brothers Grurn- 

 Grzimailo. As above stated, Professor Menzbier (Ibis, 1894, pp. 378-382) has recently separated 

 Lanius mollis into two subspecies, viz. Lanius mollis (which he says inhabits Mongolia, and 

 which has in the adult plumage the upper tail-coverts greyish tipped with ochraceous buff, and 

 without any transverse bars) and Lanius funereus (which inhabits the Tian-shan range, and which 

 is darker, greyer, and less tinged with buff than Lanius mollis, and has the larger upper tail- 

 coverts marked with a very distinct terminal black band in the adult). In the young of both 

 these two forms the upper tail-coverts are vermiculated with dull black. I am indebted to 

 Prof. Menzbier for the loan of his type of Lanius funereus, of which I reproduce his description 



