148 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Family LANIID.E. The Shrikes. 

 Great Grey Shrike. Lanius excnbitor Ijnn. 



The Great Grey Shrike (Plate 59) is a bird of northern 

 Europe and Asia which occurs in our islands as a winter 

 visitor and a regular autumn and occasional spring bird of 

 passage. It seldom reaches Ireland. The long dispute as to 

 whether there are two distinct Great Grey Shrikes, according 

 to the possession of one or two white bars on the wing, has at 

 last been settled ; birds of the two varieties interbreed, and 

 nestlings with one and two bars have been reared in the same 

 brood. 



Any one who sees this bird perched in its characteristic 

 upright attitude on the topmost branch of a tree, or, as I have 

 seen on the treeless Yorkshire coast, on a telegraph pole, will 

 understand Linnasus's name excnbitor ; nothing which moves 

 is missed by the keen eye of the watchful " sentinel." It turns 

 its head sharply to follow the flight of a bee, then swoops, 

 hawk-like, and snaps it on the wing, returning with its quarry 

 and, holding it down with one foot, tears it to bits ; it looks 

 down sideways, attracted by the chirrup of the grasshopper, and 

 drops lightly to the grass and the insect is no more. Though 

 it uses its feet to hold beetles or flies, it has other methods with 

 larger game — lizards, mice, shrews and birds ; these when 

 captured are impaled upon some sharp point — the thorn of 

 whitethorn, the stout spines of buckthorn on the east coast, 

 and, not infrequently, the barbs of wire railings. Thus secured 

 they can be ripped with the strong hooked bill, but its feet are 

 not suited for tearing. When, after a sally, it returns to its 

 observation post, it bends forward, regaining its balance with 

 expanded and uplifted tail ; it is then that the graduated black 

 and white pattern shows to advantage. Its flight is undulating 

 but rather heavy, but its dash is straight and determined. 



