70 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cryptically coloured with reference to such botanical remains as 

 shrivelled bud-scales, &c. I cannot, however, regard this as a very 

 good case, for Clausilia is by no means always found in the 

 situations indicated. 



SOME NOTES ON THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE 

 (LANIUS COLLURIO). 



By 0. V. Aplin, F.L.S. 



Four or five years ago, while engaged in collecting evidence 

 of the distribution of the Red-backed Shrike in these Islands,* 

 various items of information relating to the plumage and habits 

 of this bird came into my hands , and at the same time my 

 attention was turned to some points relating thereto. The facts 

 I then collected were carefully noted down, but were put on one 

 side, partly because I was just going abroad, and partly in the 

 hope that I should be nble to add to them at some future time. 

 However, other things ornithological have occupied me, and 

 when I came across the little bundle of notes the other day, I 

 thought that the best way to draw attention to the subject, and 

 get further light thrown upon it, would be to bring them under 

 the notice of ornithologists just as they were. 



The ordinary dress of the female Red-backed Shrike is 

 described as having the whole of the upper surface of the head 

 and body reddish brown ; wings like those of the male, but the 

 rufous margins narrower ; tail-feathers above brown, tinged with 

 red, the outer edges of the web of each outside tail-feather dull 

 white ; under surface of body and sides greyish white, crossed 

 with greyish brown semilunar lines (' Yarrell,' 4th edit.). The 

 young males are said to be like adult females, but to have the 

 darker semilunar marks on the back as well as on the breast. 

 Mr. Howard Saunders writes (' Manual of British Birds ') that 

 the female ordinarily has the upper parts and tail russet-brown, 

 with faint crescentic bars on the mantle ; and I may add that 

 I have known the female breeding while still showing fairly 

 conspicuous semilunar lines on the upper parts. A bird very 

 much in this stage of plumage is figured in Morris's plate 

 (1851 edition). The dark crescentic lines in this specimen are 

 to be seen on the crown of the head, as well as on the upper 



* Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. v. p. 286. 



