Lanius excubitor and Lanins major. 31 
guidance; and hence that L. major does not admit of being 
distinguished by reliable characters from L. excubitor. When 
prosecuting my investigations, I had before me, as seen in 
the woodcuts furnished (p. 275) in the said journal, indivi¬ 
duals from the southern districts of Norway, comprising alike 
the most typical specimens of L. major , in which the secon¬ 
daries exhibit no traces at all of any white bases, and others 
in which the first indications of such a basal mark had made 
their appearance; furthermore, individuals with the said 
indications expanded to a distinct spot of about 15 mm. in 
breadth. Such individuals we might, with perfect indiffe¬ 
rence, term L. major or L. excubitor. 
From these transition-individuals we have an unbroken 
series till the inner spot on the secondaries becomes the 
white mark in the “ typical L. excubitor.” Similar transition- 
series, or individuals, have been shown to occur by Mr. See- 
bohm (ibis, 1880, p. 185), by Dr. Finsch (Verh. k.-k. zool.- 
bot. Ges. Wien, 1879, p. 188), and by various other orni¬ 
thologists. 
Dr. Homeyer, in particular, has dw^elt most emphatically 
on this subject (Journ. f. Orn. 1880, p. 178), and few, 
if any, authors have hitherto had so extensive a material 
on which to base their researches, since that ornithologist 
was enabled to submit at one time as many as sixty-three 
specimens of L . major , excubitor , and homeyeri to minute 
comparison. But even had the whole intervening series been 
wanting, it would still be impossible to retain the single- 
marked form as a separate species. 
As I have previously stated (Arch. f. Math, og Naturv. 1879, 
p. 279), Mr. Meves, of Stockholm, has, in his collection, two 
young birds, both shot Aug. 12th at Quickjock, in Lapmark, 
which he has reason to believe were of the same brood. One 
of these is a double-spotted male ( L . excubitor) , the other a 
single-spotted female (L. major). Now, that these birds 
were really hatched together, it would seem, from the compa¬ 
ratively advanced season of the year, difficult to decide ; they 
had, most likely, already moulted their nest-plumage, and 
may have belonged to different broods. 
