MASKED SHRIKE. 169 
coyered in Greece, and described as a new species by 
Count Von der Mihle, in 1844, under the name of 
Lanius leucomotopon. 
It was first figured by Temminck as L. personatus, 
which name was adopted by Schlegel, in his ‘Reyue,” 
in 1844, and which I retain in deference to the natu- 
ralist whose system of classification I have followed. 
The genius of the late Prince of Canino, so fertile in 
adding to our list of names, called it Leucometopon 
nubicum, erecting a new genus upon the specific name 
of Count Mihle. Ornithologists must not therefore be 
confounded in finding the Lanius personatus of 1844, 
and the Leuwcometcpon nubicum of Loche’s list of 
African birds in 1858, the same. 
And yet it is, and was, and ever will be, a Butcher 
Bird, haying all the characters and habits of the well- 
marked genus Lanius. 
The Masked Shrike is an inhabitant of Greece, Nubia, 
Algeria, Arabia, Abyssinia, and Egypt. We are indebted 
for all we know about its habits to Lindermayer and 
Mile, the Grecian ornithologists. 
According to the former it makes its nest in bushes, 
in uncultivated ground, or on olive trees; it constructs 
a circular nest, composed of young leaves outside, and 
of blades of grass and petals of flowers inside. It lays 
seven or eight eggs, of a pale greenish grey, washed 
with a yellowish tint and irregular spots of green black, 
mixed with others of a green brown at the largest end. 
It arrives in Greece towards the end of April or 
beginning of May, and leaves with its young towards 
the end of August. It inhabits the extensive valleys 
of Greece, and sings very prettily. 
Count Mihle thus describes the “Masked Shrike:’— 
“A beautiful Butcher Bird, of which I have collected 
