and 011 the western it is abundant in the Gfambia, and has
been received by Dr. Hartlaub from the Hold Coast. Excepting
perhaps within the tropics, where it may be stationary, it
is a migratory species throughout all the countries in which
it is found, appearing in southern and central Europe in
spring and leaving in autumn.
In the adult male, as represented in the lower figure, the
beak is black, above the base of the upper mandible is a
narrow streak of white; the forehead, round the eyes, the
ear-coverts, and a small patch depending therefrom, black;
irides hazel; crown of the head and nape of the neck, rich
chestnut-red; the back black; the scapulars white; the
rump grey; upper tail-coverts white: the wings and wing-
coverts black; the primaries white at the base, forming a
spot when the wing is closed; the secondaries white at the
end : the middle tail-feathers black; the outer feather on
each side wholly white; the next on each side with the
proximal half white, the distal half black, with a white tip;
the next on each side with a white tip only. The chin,
throat, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, white; legs,
toes, and claws, black.
The whole length of the male here described was seven
inches and a half. The length from the carpal joint to the
end of the wing-featliers, four inches : the first wing-featlier
less than half the length of the second ; the third, fourth,
and fifth, longer than the second; the third the longest of
the whole.
The female has the crown and nape dull red,; the scapulars
dirty white; the black of the back mixed with brown;
the wing-coverts edged with re d ; the breast dirty white;
the feathers of the flanks reddish tipped with brown.
The young bird of the year, as represented in the upper
figure, is reddish-brown above, with brown transverse lines ;
wings and tail brownish-black ; underneath dirty white, with
greyish transverse lines.
The young male in the British collection of birds in the
British Museum, which has been already mentioned as
having been killed in Kent, and a specimen of a young
female formerly in the Museum of the Zoological Society,
which bird belonged to the collection of Mr. Vigors ; both
these are apparently in the plumage of the second or third
year, and may be thus described : Head, and nape of the
neck, red ; back and wings hair-brown, without any transverse
lines ; scapulars and edges of the tertials yellowish-
white ; rump inclining to grey ; tail-feathers clove-brown ;
all the under surface of the body dull white, tinged with
red, but without bars ; beak, legs, and toes, dark brown.
Examples of the Woodchat from Egypt in winter-plumage
present very great variety, and have been the cause of many
errors.
Several of the smaller Shrikes, of which this species is
one, are by some authorities removed from the genus Lanius,
and for their accommodation a genus Enneoctonus has been
erected—a proceeding which seems scarcely necessary.
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