166 LESSER GREY SHRIKE. 



scription. It lives in the same localities, and has the 

 same manners and habits as that bird. 



Lanius minor inhabits the Archipelago, Turkey, Italy, 

 Spain, Greece, and many parts of the north and 

 south of France. It is found also in Germany rarely, 

 and still more so in Holland. It builds its nest of 

 odoriferous herbs, according to Degland, and M. Gerbe 

 says that in Provence it always constructs the outside 

 of stalks, in greater or less quantity, of the wild im- 

 mortelle, (Amaranthus.) It lays five or six eggs, obtuse, 

 generally greenish, sometimes greyish or slightly bluish, 

 with spots of a violet grey and olive, particularly at the 

 larger end. 



Of this bird in Greece, Count Muhle observes that 

 it is as abundant as L. meridionalis, yet "I never saw 

 it with so red an abdomen as the figure in Gould's 

 splendid work." 



The following is Temminck's description: — Adult male. 

 Forehead and auditory region, and parts around the 

 eyes, black; occiput, nape, and back, ash-colour; throat 

 white; chest and flanks of a red rose; wings black, a 

 white speculum on the quill feathers; first tail quill 

 white, the second black along the shaft, on the third a 

 great black spot- tipped with white; on the fourth a 

 larger black spot, at the end pure white; four middle 

 quills entirely black. 



The female has the rose-colour duller; black bands on 

 the forehead and ears smaller; the band and the black 

 of the wings more inclined to a brown tint. 



Young of the year in the two sexes, after the autumn 

 moult, have no black band on the forehead; this part 

 is in winter of a dull ash-colour; after the spring moult 

 the black band appears, and the rose on the chest is 

 brighter. Young birds of the year are also distinguished 



