THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 213 



48. — Great Grey Shrike [Grauer "Wurger]. 



LANIUS EXCUBITOR, Linn. 



Heligolandish : Groot Verwoahr-Fink = Great Nine-Killer. 



Lanitis excubitor. Naumann, ii. 7. 

 Great Grey Shrike. Dresser, iii. 375. 

 Pie gricche griese. Teinininck, Maiiiivl, i. 142, iii. 80. 



Only solitary examples of this stately bird are met with on 

 Heligoland — they are specially rare in the spring — and I have only 

 twice succeeded in obtaining birds in perfectly coloured plumage, 

 with the under-sides pure white. It occurs somewhat more fre- 

 quently during the autumn migration, but even then only solitary 

 examples are met with. In a few instances I have seen the bird, 

 even in winter during deep snow ; but they seem to be having a 

 pretty hard time of it under these conditions, if I may judge from 

 the behaviour of a particular individual, which, in the course of each 

 day, used repeatedly to come to one of my windows which looked 

 out upon the garden. In this window hung a cage containing a 

 Goldfinch, and the greedy eyes with which the Shrike used to view 

 the frightened captive, and the energetic attempts it made to 

 get at it, gave clear evidence of the hunger-pangs which were 

 tormenting it. 



This species is found nesting as far as northern Scandinavia 

 and Russia; and its isolated appearance in Heligoland would, there- 

 fore, seem to show that its autunm migration proceeds almost 

 strictly on a line from north to south. In this respect it differs 

 from the eastern species, L. horealis— major (Pallas), the more 

 frequent occurrence of which would lead one to suppose that it 

 was predisposed towards an east-to-west line of migration, a like 

 tendency being exhibited by many other eastern species. 



This bird, though very cautious in general, is yet not unfre- 

 quently caught in the throstle-bush ; that, however, such a fate is 

 well deserved, is shown by the discovery of many a poor little 

 Redbreast with its brains hacked out, the work of this ruthless 

 aggressor. I have even on one occasion seen a Blackbird, as it was 

 hastening along over the grass, pounced upon by one of these 

 daring robbers, and succumb, after a short struggle, to the bites of 

 his assailant. 



This species breeds in northern France, Germany, Scandinavia ; 

 up to about 70' N. latitude, in European and the adjacent parts of 

 Asiatic Russia, whence it seems gradually to be replaced by the 

 following allied species, L. borealis. . 



