162 GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 



do not think the races do mix, though this may take 

 place in districts where they are both found, or where 

 one is more numerous than the other." 



The Great Grey Shrike is an inhabitant of Italy, 

 Dalmatia, the south of France, and the Spanish coast 

 of the Mediterranean, and it is found in Greece. It 

 has been killed by M. Savi in Tuscany, and by Prince 

 C. Bonaparte near Rome. It occurs accidentally in the 

 north of Africa. 



Count Von der Miihle says: — "L. meridionalis is 

 found, though not commonly, among the bushes in 

 growing meadows. It breeds in Greece. It is very 

 like excubitor, when young, but it has the four centre 

 tail feathers a beautiful black. It is rarely seen here 

 after the end of August." 



According to Degland it nests in trees. It lays five 

 or six eggs, of a dirty white or reddish white, with 

 small spots, numerous and close together, of a dull red, 

 brown, and grey. Length, — long diameter one inch, 

 small diameter nine lines. 



In the "Fauna Boreali Americana" there is an ex- 

 cellent picture of the North American Shrike, ( Lanius 

 excubitoroides,) which Swainson occupies three or four 

 pages in endeavouring to prove is a new species, and 

 different both from the L. carolinensis of Wilson, and 

 the L. ludovicianus of Linnseus. He also says that 

 Vieillot's L. ardosiaceus is an imaginary species, made 

 up of L. borealis, the Great American Grey Shrike, 

 and Wilson's carolinensis. If Swainson's description 

 is, hoAvever, true, whatever may be the specific mark 

 of L. meridionalis, there can be no doubt about Wilson's 

 carolinensis, and the L. meridionalis of Temminck 

 being the same bird. Swainson insists upon the im- 

 portance of the four middle tail feathers of L. carolinensis 



