9G THE ZOOLOGIST. 



man who caught it said that there were others about which he 

 expected to secure, but I heard nothing more from him." 



Pembrokeshire. — The Eev. Murray A. Mathew writes: — " I 

 was much surprised, when shooting over very suitable ground, 

 in this county, never to come across a Spotted Crake. It would 

 appear to be a rare bird here. It has occurred once or twice to my 

 friend Mr. Hugh Owen, in the neighbourhood of Fishguard ; but 

 in my eight or nine years of Snipe-shooting, over bog and moor, 

 I never encountered a single example." Mr. Mathew adds : — 

 " I have no doubt that, on the whole, the conclusions you have 

 drawn at the end of your paper are correct ; that P. maruetta is 

 in some parts of England an early migrant, remaining until late 

 in the autumn, and nesting in suitable localities ; while in 

 some few districts the birds are resident throughout the year, 

 being, perhaps, more numerous during the summer, when mi- 

 grating birds have joined them." 



Aberdeen. — The last-named correspondent adds : — " I have 

 seen one shot in Aberdeenshire, near Aboyne, in the month of 

 August. It was considered rare, and I was asked to skin it for 

 the shooter." 



ON THE GBEAT GBEY SHRIKE, LANIUS EXCUB1TOR. 



By Eev. H. A. Macpheeson, M.A. 



The Grey Shrikes, as most readers of 'The Zoologist' are 

 probably aware, are represented by several specific forms in the 

 colder regions of the Old World, the largest being that described 

 by Prejevalsky as Lanius giganteus ; on the other hand, the species 

 most widely distributed, so far as I can ascertain, is the well- 

 known Pallas's Great Shrike, L. major, the range of which 

 extends from Britain, across Europe and Asia, into China 

 (Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 375). It was this last named 

 which for many years attracted the attention of English ornitholo- 

 gists as a doubtful form, possibly identical witli the nearctic 

 Ij. borealis, a well-known bird, until Mr. Seebohm announced 

 that the single-barred birds found in Britain should be referred to 

 Ij. major. Gould had at one time informed the late Mr. Gatcombe 

 that the possession of a double white alar band was characteristic 

 of the male only of L. cxcubitor (Pidsley, 'Birds of Devonshire,' 



