72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



had " reason to believe that this was a young individual, that is 

 to say, a bird of the preceding year." This belief of Blyth is, in 

 the work before alluded to, said to show that the assumption of 

 some writers that it was only the very old hen of this Shrike 

 which acquires the cock's plumage, could not explain the fact. 

 But Blyth merely had reason to believe his one specimen was a 

 bird of the previous year; we have not the grounds for his 

 belief, and it would be difficult to be certain of the fact in the 

 case of a breeding bird in an almost unknown stage of plumage. 

 Unfortunately, there is a great dearth of detailed descriptions 

 of the plumage of these so-called female Shrikes assuming the 

 plumage of the male. I have, personally, only met with one 

 example of a female in a dress approaching that of the male, and 

 the character of its plumage (especially the whiteness of the 

 under parts and the clearness of the markings) gave me the 

 impression that it was a very old bird. It was shot in Oxford- 

 shire, in the second week in July, 1890, and was in company of 

 an ordinary male at the time. The following is the description 

 of this specimen : — Crown ash-grey, tinged strongly with brown ; 

 nape ash-grey ; above the eye a white streak ; ear coverts dark 

 brown. Mantle and wing coverts warm brown. Rump and tail 

 coverts grey tinged with brown, and with faint traces of dark 

 marks at the end of some of the tail coverts. Tail dark brown, 

 outside feathers edged and tipped with white. Chin, throat, sides 

 of neck and breast and belly and under tail coverts dim white, 

 marked on breast, sides of neck, and flanks with clearly denned 

 dark crescentic lines ; throat marked slightly ; belly, under tail 

 coverts, and chin unmarked. There are no signs of crescentic 

 marks on the head, back, or rump. These marks, when present, 

 are always a sign of immaturity. 



The question is, whether this (or something very like it) is 

 not really the normal, fully adult plumage of the female. That 

 female Shrikes breed in the plain warm brown dress, referred to 

 in this paper, is no proof that the latter is the ordinary dress of 

 the adult; for Kestrels commonly breed before they attain the 

 blue tail (barred with black) of the old female. In June, 1891, 

 I saw in Switzerland another female Shrike with the colouring of 

 the upper parts approaching that of the male. This was in the 

 valley of the Engelberger Aa, near the Lake of Lucerne, where 

 the Red-backed Shrike is common. It was one of a pair which 



