164 



" Cumbre " 5000 to 7000 feet, and is seldom or never seen on the north or west side of the 

 island. I have carefully compared specimens from the Canaries with the type of L. fallax in 

 the British Museum, and find them agree very closely, and one specimen from Fuerteventura is 

 absolutely identical in every respect, except that it has a somewhat shorter wing. 



As yet the distribution of the present form in Africa is but imperfectly known. So far as I 

 can ascertain there is no certain record of its occurrence west of the Nile, but it stands to reason 

 that it must in all probability occur in the countries intervening between that river and the 

 Canaries. Dr. Finsch obtained his specimens in the Bogos country, Mr. Blanford obtained it at 

 Ain-Habab in Abyssinia and at Annesley Bay, and von Heuglin (/. c.) records it from the coasts 

 of Abyssinia, Dahlak, and Tedjura. According to Mr. Oates it has also been obtained at Muscat. 

 In Palestine it is, according to Canon Tristram, the commonest Shrike, and is resident all the 

 year in every part of the country; and I may here remark that all the references in the 'Birds 

 of Europe ' relative to Lanius lahtora in Palestine pertain to the present form. To the 

 eastward Lanius fallax occurs in Mesopotamia, Afghanistan (fide Oates), and Baluchistan, where 

 Mr. Blanford obtained it at Gwadar, and Mr. Oates (Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, i. p. 461) states 

 that a Shrike obtained by Lieut. Burgess, probably in the Deccan, must be referred to the 

 present form. 



In habits Lanius fallax assimilates closely with its allies. Von Heuglin states that in 

 North-east Africa he found it frequenting bare rocks and cliffs, where there was scarcely a trace 

 of tree-growth, and wherever there was an isolated half-withered acacia, one of these Shrikes 

 might be seen perched on its summit. Canon Tristram says that in Palestine, in the winter 

 season, its favourite perch is the outermost bough of some bare prickly shrub, and that when 

 approached it simply flits to the outside of the next bush. 



Its nest, according to Canon Tristram, is well defended by thorns from the attacks of hawks, 

 and is placed in the middle of a jujube-tree, and the eggs are deposited in March, and I may 

 remark that eggs I have received from the Canaries were also all taken in that month. Von 

 Heuglin states that in N.E. Africa he often found the nest in the eyrie of the Osprey, or at least 

 covered by the latter, more seldom placed on samra or balsam-bushes, and generally at an 

 altitude of from four to eight feet above the ground. 



The eggs, usually four or five in number, are dull light stone-grey in ground-colour, and 

 are covered with pale purplish-brown underlying shell-blotches, and dull liver-brown or nut- 

 brown surface spots and blotches. 



As stated in the article on Lanius elegans, Lanius lahtora and the present bird can only be 

 regarded as belonging to closely allied forms or subspecies of the same species; and Lanius 

 fallax, like the other allied forms, is subject to a considerable amount of variation, both as to 

 tint of colour on the upper and under parts, and also as to the amount of grey on the lesser 

 wing-coverts. Some specimens from the Canaries are lighter and others darker ; some have the 

 lesser wing-coverts almost entirely grey, whereas others (especially one, a female, from Guia, 

 Teneriffe, in Canon Tristram's collection) have them black, with very slight grey tips. All, 

 however, differ from L. algeriensis, not only in having the upper and under parts much paler, 

 but also in having a narrow white superciliary stripe, and in having the chin and throat white, 

 and not grey. Specimens from Abyssinia vary somewhat, though scarcely so much as those from 



