NOTES ON THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE. 7\ 



parts of the body, but that instances are on record of the 

 assumption of a plumage similar to that of the male. The same 

 author describes the young bird as whiter on the forehead, duller 

 and less rufous brown on the upper parts, and more barred both 

 above and below. The young Shrikes in early August appear, at 

 a little distance, in life, considerably paler than the female. 

 Meyer (' Illustrations of British Birds,' 8vo, 1842, vol. i.) 

 describes the female as ferruginous brown on the upper parts, 

 tinged on nape and rump with ash-grey ; and the young of the 

 year to " nearly resemble the female, but some of the feathers 

 on the rump have a narrow dark border." He figures, in 

 his beautiful plate of this species (No. 43, upper figure), a very 

 curious bird. The crown is grey, strongly washed with brown, 

 and closely marked with clearly denned semilunar dark lines ; 

 mantle light rufous brown, differing not much from that of the 

 adult male ; rump grey, marked with a few semilunar dark lines ; 

 under parts marked with dark lines rather closely. I believe 

 Meyer always drew and coloured his figures from specimens, and 

 he lived where these Shrikes were common ; but what stage of 

 plumage his bird was in it is hard to say. It might be an old 

 female in the dress described by some as assuming the plumage 

 of the male, if it were not for the marking on the crown of the 

 head. Can it be a male over the first moult? I am rather 

 inclined to think that Meyer must have exaggerated the clearness 

 and abundance of the semilunar dark markings. Jenyns and 

 others refer to a shade of grey on the head or nape, and rump of 

 females, and Dr. Sharpe (' Handbook of British Birds ') says that 

 " the grey of the head " of the female is " duller and washed 

 with brown." Seebohm wrote that the female usually differs 

 considerably from the male ; the whole of the upper parts 

 reddish brown ; wings similar in colour to those of the male, 

 but rufous margins paler and not so broad. He says nothing of 

 crescentic marks on the upper parts. The cases in which the 

 female is found " very, if not exactly similar in plumage to that 

 worn by the cock " are, in the 4th edition of ' Yarrell,' suggested 

 to be cases of " sexual dimorphism." The case of the female 

 shot by Blyth and stated by him to be " partly in the male 

 plumage; but the ovaries were perfect and contained eggs; and 

 it was in company with a partner of the other sex," is referred to 

 in ' Yarrell ' ; and to the foregoing account Blyth added that he 



