669 
1921.] the Near East and Tropical East Africa. 
Lanins excubitor elegans Swains, and 
Lanins excnbitor ancheri Bp. 
The ranges of these two races of Grey Shrike appear to 
have a large overlap in southern Palestine and Egypt and 
on the Red Sea Littoral. 
West of the Egyptian Delta (common at Mersa Matruh 
but absent from Solium) all birds are pure elegans, whilst 
east of the Delta I obtained a pure aucheri at Helouan (Dec.), 
at Suez (May), and on the Suez Canal (Febr.). A bird from 
Jericho in the Jordan Valley, where nearly all birds are 
pure aucheri, is indeterminable, and can only be called 
aucheri > elegans. Pure aucheri also occurs at the north end 
of the Jordan Valley, all round the Sea of Galilee, and there 
is a small colony a few miles north of Acre on the coast. 
On the other hand, birds from the coastal plain of Palestine 
south of Mount Carmel, where Grey Shrikes are very rare, 
appear to be pure elegans. Lanius elegans becomes common' 
round Gaza and throughout northern Sinai, and is the usual 
bird of the Egyptian Desert east of the Delta and on the Suez 
Canal throughout its length. There are no Grey Shrikes in 
the Judaean highlands, Syrian Desert, at Damascus, or in the 
Lebanon, and I saw none in October when I motored down 
the coast from Beyrout to Acre, except the one patch near 
Acre. 
The colour on the upper parts of these races is not a 
reliable character, though elegans usually has more white in 
the wing and tail. The best guide is the colour of the under 
parts, nearly always pure white in elegans and pale greyish- 
blue in aucheri, and also the spot on the under wing-coverts, 
which is always well-defined in aucheri and absent or ill- 
defined in elegans. 
Lanius cristatus isabellinus Hemp. & Ehr. and 
Lanins cristatus phcenicuroides (Schalow). 
Both these Asiatic Shrikes occur fairly commonly in 
Kenya Colony in about equal numbers from the middle of 
November to the end of January, or at least they did during 
1915, 1916, and 1917. 
SEE. XI.—VOL. III. 2 Y 
